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.

Midterm Hiking Trip

It is midterms this week so the kids take their tests and then leave early. After school yesterday, all the teachers at my school went on a hike to a Buddhist temple on Buksan Mountain.

Kyeong, Yeong Deuk and I hiked up together.

During the hike, we stopped and had kimchi (because it is Korea and every meal must be accompanied by kimchi) and mokolri, which is an unrefined rice wine. It's fizzy, opaque white and very sweet - it's sort of like alcoholic soda.
Traditionally, it is served in a wooden bowl like this, which was how we drank it later for dinner.

But we just used paper cups for the hike (unfortunately, this photo is a little overexposed but we are toasting).

We finally reached the top and took a rest. Sorry, America, I perpetuated unflattering stereotypes about westerners - I was sweating like a dog. (Actually, dogs don't sweat but the point is, I was very sweaty; like, 'kind of looked like I'd gone swimming' sweaty).

The Buddhist temple was very beautiful and it is still in use so it is very well maintained. Some friends wanted to do a temple stay sometime, so on the hike up I was asking Yeon Deuk about it. He told me that if we go, we must eat only vegetarian, go to sleep at nine p.m., then wake up at six a.m. and bow 3000 times to the Buddha. So, I was feeling lukewarm about temple stays but it was so serene and beautiful there that I still might consider it.

Above the main temple is a shrine with a carving in a huge boulder of the Buddha on a lotus. In order to get there, you must a very tall stairway.
I sprinted up the stairs because I like getting painful things out of the way quickly. And I thought I could use the exercise. Mr. Yang, the PE teacher, was very impressed with me.

My principal told me after that the stairway has 108 steps. This is significant in Buddhism because it is said there are 108 fears and anxieties in life. So, as you climb the stairs, with each step you are supposed to release an anxiety. Buddhism is very poetic. Although, after watching Mr. Shin collapse in exhaustion on reaching the top, I wonder if it isn't just that people are too tired to be anxious when they get to the top.

Here is a picture of the Buddha.

The man next to me is my principal. I am kind of scared of him. But he invited me to his daughter's wedding!