We're still recovering from our weekend excursion. But it was a fun one - Buddha's Birthday! To celebrate, we decided to participate in Yeon Deung Hoe, or the Lotus Lantern Festival, held at Jogyesa Temple in Seoul.
Originally we were going to head up Saturday night to take in Yeondeungnori and then have all day Sunday at the Buddhist Street Festival. Unfortunately, Ronnie came down with the flu (the actual flu, not a generic bug), so we scaled back to Sunday's events only, which was the major day anyhow.
So, Sunday morning, we packed up everyone, hopped the train and headed to Seoul. Lucky for us, the temple is in the same neighborhood as Insadong, the location of our last adventure. We bummed around and took in Insadong during the day. I just LOVE this area of Seoul. It's definitely on the must return with no kids so I can shop list. After tasting some more street food and getting the girls in on the action, we eventually wound up right where we needed to be.
A few weeks ago, I had found out that the Buddhist Street Festival held special events for foreigners and was really interested in making a lantern for a keepsake. So, I signed up the whole family. After we all sat down and got to going on our lanterns, we realized that we were going to be there for a while. 80 petals made up the 5 rows of "flower" and then 8 leaves for the bottom. Those things are a lot of work, but it is really peaceful while you do it.
Anyway, we got them all done and hung in time for judging. The girls were really excited about their lanterns, and won some great little trinkets. But I was excited that we got reserved seating for the parade later that night just by participating. Worth the time for me to have a front row seat.
We headed on to explore the rest of the street fair. We didn't get far, as the Jogyesa Temple was just right there. The temple all decked out and there was some wonderful traditional dancing and music in the square. On our way out, we met up with a Buddhist man who gave both Ronnie and I prayer bracelets; he was also sweet enough to give the girls a piece of candy. He then helped us do a proper bow to say goodbye and thank you and we were on our way back out to the fair.
After wandering around the street fair and seeing some more performances, we decided it was time to find something to eat before the parade started. Again, we were lucky that this was the same neighborhood Ronnie and I had explored a few weeks ago, because we knew where the main concentration of restaurants were. We cut down one of the alleys and came upon a Japanese noodle restaurant.
In true Oliver fashion, we had to point to the things that looked like they would be appealing to us, without really knowing what it was. I ordered the pork cutlet with ramen for the girls and I, while Ronnie was hoping for a spicy ramen soup. We also ordered a side of gyoza (potstickers), because at least we knew what that was. And, also in true Oliver fashion, it worked out great. Ramen here is nothing like what you think of from the states. It's the difference between Campbell's Chicken Noodle soup and homemade chicken noodle soup. The girls slurped their noodles, enjoyed their crispy cutlet and split a Sprite; I got to eat the vegetables and broth that came with the noodles, while sneaking a bite or two of the cutlet, along with the wonderful gyoza, and Ronnie was left to sweating out his bowl of extra spicy ramen. We left full and happy about our new find.
After dinner we headed to find our seats for the parade. Along the way, people kept giving the girls lanterns. The girls were so excited and there was a happy buzz among the crowd. We finally got to where our reserved seats were and got settled in before the main event started.
The parade kicked off with several performances from local schools, and more traditional music and dancing. Then it started: person after person, float after float, a sea of beautiful lanterns. I don't know if there are really any words to describe the sight other than awe inspiring. This has got to be the equivalent of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade for Korea. What an honor to be a part of it. We made it through most of the parade but there came the point where it was just time to head home. We were all tired and the next day was a school/work day. We gathered our lanterns we had collected, eight in total, and headed for the train.
I think Holly summed it up best when she asked if we could "do it again next weekend." I responded, "Of course we can, but it'll be 52 weeks before the next parade." Holly didn't miss a beat and said, "Good, because this was the BEST day mommy!"
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