Lantern Festival

The cool thing about having been out here for a year now is that you can say, "Oh yeah! I remember doing that last year!" Recently there was a huge parade and celebration in honor of Buddha's birthday. It is the Lotus Lantern Festival. We don't really know much about it, we just go for fun. Last year we didn't really know about the parade until a little ways through it. We had been exploring the lanterns that went along the river and at the end heard it and went up. This year we made plans with our good friends, Randy and Brandi, to enjoy the full show.

First and foremost (for me anyway :)) is the dinner. We walked around in search for some grub and since Hunny has been craving 'beef & leaf' for a while, we stopped at the first available place. Im usually skeptical but while out with others I've learned to keep quiet. And it turned out fine. Better then fine. It was delicious! And the servers were so nice to us. We were constantly ringing the bell; more bean paste please; more garlic please; more water please; more kimchi please. Then we split a soup. Yum. An entire shrimp, head and all. I don't think I can ever eat shrimp the same. I even tried the shell something or another. It looked like a stomach that exploded. It took a bit but I managed to eat it, and it turned out pretty tasty! We had a great time just eating out together. Which is funny because as often as we hang out together and have dinner, this was the first time we went out for food since we first met.

Click to learn more about the Lotus Lantern Festival

Up where the parade was to go through we went all over looking for the best spot. Kicked out of the first one, we snuck in with some other Koreans sitting on the curb right after a turn in the parade route. When the same guard that shooed us from our first spot passed by us he smiled and carried on. A different guard however tried telling us we needed to move but we said if the other Koreans we were sitting next to didn't have to move, we werent moving. And we sat.

Last year one of the Brandi went and she said that those in the parade with lanterns will sometimes give them to the crowd. This was enough incentive for me to act the fool. We were all hooting and hollering to cheer on the walkers that were otherwise almost solemn or perhaps bored. We brought the life to that parade. We were whistling and cheering and hollering and clapping. We were most likely the loudest ones there. They would hear us crazy people cheering and light up. They waved back and some started dancing and a few would do a small show right in front of us. We got and gave lots of high fives. We were having a blast. We ended up walking away with seven lanturns. Two of them were given to us pole and all; many of them would carry a "T" shaped pole with two lanterns hanging from it. I was screaming and cheering up a storm.

After the parade was over there was a concert that started and since we had no idea what they were saying, we decided to check out the big Buddisht temple where the parade went to. There was the ceiling of lanturns and the hustle and bustle of the people. We looked around a bit and took pictures until it was time to head back to catch the confetti. I was able to get some prayer beads in the form of a bracelet on our way out. We got back to the intersection and the confetti had already been launched but was still going even for a while after we got there. It was pink and white squares of tissue paper and we would grab up handfuls and throw it in the air like snow. It was fun but it got late and we decided it was time to go home. We had a great time and made out like fat rats.

Confetti!