Sunday, 12 May 2013

Buddha's Birthday Take 1: Seoul

The Lotus Lantern Festival in all it's brightly coloured, neon-flashing glory.


So this weekend me and a few of my Cheongju friends thought it would be nice to pay a visit to the Lotus Lantern Festival in Seoul, held in honour of Buddha's Birthday (which is actually next week, May 28th).

This day is called 석가탄신일 (Seokga tansinil), meaning "Buddha's birthday" or 부처님 오신 날 (Bucheonim osin nal) meaning "the day when the Buddha came". And thanks to Mr Buddha we all get a lovely long weekend off work, which we'll be spending in Busan :D
Anyway, back to the festival. It's always featured high on my Korean Bucket List, as a must-see while I'm here in Korea. But ended up being not quite what I expected...
Let me paint a picture of what I imagined it to be... hundreds of hand-made multi-coloured paper lanterns contrasting beautifully with the darkness as they were released  into the night sky, incense burning, monks chanting, etc, etc.
The reality can be summed up in the following photo:


An  lantern in the shape of a Samsung mobile phone. How very Korean!

It's not really that I didn't enjoy the festival. I just expected it to be a bit more magical.

 Most of the lanterns were made out of synthetic materials, as oppose to the traditional paper. And at one point as we were walking down the river a lazor show with accompanying music started out of nowhere!  Two of the huge parade lanterns, in the shape of a dragon and an elephant, were actually robotic and had sound effects! And one of the lanterns, in the shape of a little boy, even had a flat screen TV embedded in it's head where photos of different Korean children's faces kept flashing up. Even the monks weren't as I expected to them to be! My (admittedly idealistic) image of them as pious beings, devoted to their religion, living frugally with just the bare necessities was shattered when a Buddhist monk reached past me with his Samsung smartphone to snap a shot of the lanterns on display. I spotted another one who had clearly had enough of walking in the parade, his lantern slung over his shoulder carelessly, looking as pissed off as can be.

All this said I did really enjoy walking down the river and looking at the different lanterns there. And admittedly, it was kind of picturesque, although maybe not in the traditional sense of the word. 
And I suppose if you are looking for a very 'Korean' experience, as the modern technologically advanced nation that it has become, then this would be it.











Another thing that I found interesting (and very refreshing!) was that the parade had a section dedicated to people with disabilities. I've often heard that being disabled or having a disabled family member (particularly mental disabilities) is considered to be quite shameful and taboo in Korean culture, and is not something that they talk openly about. Although, personally I've not found much evidence for this, (At one of the school's I work at their are a number of handicapped kids, and although they don't deal with them the same way as western schools might, they've always talked about the issue openly and without prejudice as far as I've experienced.) I was still a little surprised to see handicapped people taking part in the parade. I didn't manage to get many pictures of this, as the parade was moving too fast, but it started with a huge lantern in the shape of a person pushing a wheel chair, and was followed by a group of monks pushing children in
wheelchairs, and then more handicapped children with their carers carrying lanterns and smiling and waving. It was really quite touching to watch, and hopefully this is a sign that Korean society is
 becoming more forward thinking and accepting when it comes to people with disabilities.



A blurry shot of the monks pushing the disabled children's wheelchairs.

So, I think that's everything for now. Overall, I'm still glad I went. It was a fun experience, just not the experience I was expecting.

Next week, Busan! :D

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