nanoomi

A view from above the stream

November is finally beginning to feel like the pre-winter month of evil that I remember, so I could think of no better way to spend a freezing Tuesday night than to walk along a man made stream in the middle of Seoul, looking at bright shiny things!

All joking aside, I’d been looking forward to checking out the lantern festival since missing the festival last year. I love Asian lanterns, so was really excited to see the massive lanterns that Seoul had on display. I definitely wasn’t disappointed.

The Seoul Lantern Festival started in 2009 along the Cheonggyecheon (“Clear Water Stream”) in downtown Seoul. Set on the small stream is over a kilometre of massive lanterns, most of them going with the central theme of that year. This year’s theme is “Old Story of Seoul” which is wonderfully vague so allows for pretty much anything. There are lanterns from both national and international participants, and displays of other international lantern festivals at the main entrance to the festival.

The lantern festival was really fun, but I definitely felt like I went with the wrong company. As much as I love my friend Alyssa, who came along with me, we both couldn’t help but notice that almost everyone else walking along the stream was a couple or family. After walking the full length of the lantern display there and back (which I believe was 3km?) we both felt very lonely and depressed. So we went to Bennigans and ate Death by Chocolate and whined over how we lacked boyfriends. As you do in such a situation.

Trying to explain a lantern festival seems rather silly, when I could take photos instead. I’ve posted a selection of my photos over at my website, A Blog Abroad. Or, you can check out the full gallery over on Flickr!

It’s festival season here in Korea, and while Korea’s festivals are awesome and one of my favorite things about the country, I have, at times, had a terrible time at a festival because I didn’t follow these simple rules. These rules are generally not unique to Korean festivals, but useful nonetheless.

You can find out which festivals are going on here.

Interspersed in this article are pictures from the “rape and cosmos festival” in Guri, near Seoul. That’s rape and cosmos the flowers, not rape and cosmos as in Kobe Bryant and Carl Sagan.

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The classic color scheme returns – it’s time for the Seoul Design Fair once again. Open until October 7th, this three-week-long festival emphasizes design and creativity at every turn. Called the Seoul Design Olympiad last year, the name changed due to some questions by the better-known holders of the Olympic name. While it’s worth an afternoon to inspire the creative souls, the issue of being overwhelmed by the scope of the festival continued for the third year in a row. It’s possible to see it all in a day, but comprehending it and taking in the sights and sounds is a different thing altogether.

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Author’s note: this post is rated NSFW (Not Safe For Work) due to some nudity – this IS a body painting festival, people. Please go elsewhere if you’re looking for pornography – this is tasteful and beautiful art.

As one might notice at a body painting festival, there’s plenty of paint, a touch of nudity, and some awesome artwork. Taking the human body and using it as a canvas is definitely interesting, but I had yet to see this interesting artistic technique up-close and personal. The Daegu International Body Painting Festival was the answer. There was quite a bit of excellent art; in fact, it was hard to narrow the number to less than twenty pictures for the sake of this post.

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At the risk of treading on Brian in Jeollanam-do’s territory, the Lady in Red and I headed down to southwest South Korea to check out the 38th Gangjin Celadon Festival. Korea has over 1,000 years of pottery-making history, and the festival is designed to get you interacting and learning about it. The festival has been deemed the best festival in Korea by the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism (note: not tourists) for nine years in a row.

My take? It’s worth attending if you’re already interested, but more than a few things will make you say ‘What the Kimchi?’

At its simplest, celadon is pottery with a colored glaze. Historically, pale green to intense green is the most common, although other colors have been made. There are plenty of products that have been made in the style – pots, vases, bowls, spoon rests, and much more. What the brochure doesn’t tell you is that the Mongol invasions and persecution from the Joseon Dynasty (the one following Goryeo) stopped celadon production in its tracks.

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The one festival I had been looking forward to this season had been the first ever Chicken Festival in Korea. At least, it was billed as that. I think it’s safe to say that the two biggest international draws to Korean food lately have been barbecue and fried chicken. We have a ddeok festival and a kimchi festival (yawn). We still don’t have a barbecue festival, but I was hoping this chicken festival would be going in the right direction.

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We’re getting closer to the event, so we’d better do some more plugging. Our friends at Homebrew Korea will be holding a “Smash-off” on June 12th at the Gecko’s in Jukjeon. It’s a bit of a homebrewing competition. Even if you don’t have a horse in the race, it’s a great chance to try some beer with actual flavor and a little head. The other purpose of this event and of Homebrew Korea is to show all of us that we don’t have to settle for watery beer and expensive imports. We can just as well make our own. HBK has an active message board to help you out.

In other beer talk, The Korea Herald recently posted an article on the five best beers north of the river in Seoul. Rob Titley of HBK was quoted in the article. Spoiler alert: A well-known ZenKimchi favorite was the winner.

As promised, the Lotus Lantern Festival Parade – part one of the festival is here if you missed it. The Lady in Red and I found some seats on an underground market entrance; unless you’re in the front row you’ll need to be above the standing crowd.

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As in years past, the 연등회 (Yeon Deung Hoe, or Lotus Lantern Festival) is an excellent, if overly touristy, chance to learn more about one of the world’s oldest religions. A folk festival that has origins in the Goryeo period continued as the Lantern Celebration in the Joseon Dynasty (광등노리), and continues as a social festival to this day. The religion and reverence, however, seems to get lost amidst the hubbub of making paper lotus flowers, candles, and a hundred other things.

The event started in the afternoon, with dozens of tents offering arts, crafts, and information.

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