The Lotus Lantern Festival

May 21st in Korea is 부차님오신날 ("buchanim oshinnal") or "Buddha's Birthday." To celebrate this event, the city holds a big  festival in the center of the city, the Lotus Lantern Festival, and has done so for a Long Time. The lanterns are supposed to be "symbolic offerings of the light of wisdom and compassion that dispels the dark and suffering of the world." Okay, Korea, I like it. 

The Buddhist temple was hung with so many lanterns. It was beautiful.

Now, for Adorable Things.

Normally, I think characters in full body costumes are creepy but for some reason, this is just precious. It's hard to be scared of a flower.

The Lantern Festival is quite the popular event, especially with children, it seems.

 Koreans love their cellphones. A love equal to that for their children?

I got my name written in Korean with a Buddhist precept of my choosing in Chinese calligraphy. I was debating between "Just do it" and "Meet your parents' expectations, and things will run smoothly," but I finally chose "live life as flowing water." Although I also think it's rather poor advice, it seemed so name appropriate.

Throughout the day, traditional Korean dances were performed. In my favorite one, dancers lifted two tiny, costumed, dancing children on their shoulders and paraded them around.

It was pretty adorable.

There were a lot of craft tables and since the Lantern Festival is such a big event, they had helpful English translations.

Fingering, Fingering, we can make the world together! (Hah.)

This was a pottery station. Sadly, they blocked out "fingering, fingering" later in the day. I guess someone informed them that it might have an...unintended meaning for native English speakers.

Some Buddhist monks were doing sand mandalas in the street. They were creating an image of the buddha.

A friend explained the significance - in Buddhism, the creation and then destruction of the mandalas is supposed to signify the "transitory nature of material life."

There is also a big lantern parade during the evening. Unfortunately, I was so tired from the day, I couldn't stay until the end.