Lincoln Peterson

With Buddha’s birthday getting closer, towns everywhere around Korea are putting up lanterns. One of the biggest festivals for Buddha’s birthday is the Lotus Lantern Festival. Yeondeunghoe is a popular Buddhist festival that takes place in Seoul every year. The festival has been held every year for over 1000 years!

I have to take the train to Seoul in the early afternoon from my town to get there. I’m scared of the food prices in Seoul, but since it’s a special day, I decided to eat some sushi right outside the parade before it started.

I have to eat quickly to get there before the parade starts at 7:00… And everyone is already lined up so it’s hard to see. But if you go down the road for a while, there is enough space for everyone. It’s right next to the Seoul East Gate, Dongaemun.

Once it starts to get a little darker out, people thin out and the floats are very beautful.

Actually, I’m a very poor photographer, and it’s hard to take good pictures in the dark, suffice to say it looks a lot better in person.

Mainly, the floats are organized by individual temples. The main temple in charge of organizing the event is Jogyesa, so they have a lot of floats. The monks from the temples walk down the road carrying lanterns or pulling the floats. They all seem very excited.

Also some Buddhist schools and colleges organize a float. A lot of the kids like to shout English phrases at me.

I had to go to a wedding far away the next day, so being out late and getting up early the next day was pretty exhausting.

Anyways, there’s not much else to say about this parade. Of course, there is more than just the parade, but I don’t know very much about it.