2019 Seoul Lantern Festival

I made my fourth visit to the Seoul Lantern Festival, after a few attempts were delayed by the weather; however, the weather last night was brisk but clear, and I made it up there around six PM while the crowds were quite manageable. The lanterns are in the Cheongyyecheon stream in downtown Seoul. The closest subway stop is Euljiro-3-ga on line 2.


This year's theme was folk tales, including Western ones like Cinderella, and the Woodcutter. Not sure what the second one below is:


This one is the Korean tale of Sister Sun and Brother Moon. The tiger (frequent participant in Korean fables) gobbles up the children's mother and puts on her clothes. When the tiger appears at the house, the children recognize him and run away. They climb a rope into a tree, and pray to Heaven for help. The tiger, who followed them, fell to his death, but the children keep going higher and become the sun and moon. At first, the boy is the sun and the girl is the moon, but the girl is afraid of the dark, so they switch roles.


Tayo is a Korean cartoon character, a playful and mischievous Seoul city bus, who teaches lessons about confidence, friendship and responsibility.


As you go further downstream, there is a section devoted to Korean history, such as a royal procession, and workmen building a palace:


Here is the military genius Yi Sunsin, with the "Turtle Ship" he devised:


A 승무 seungmu dancer. This is a traditional folk dance originally performed by Buddhist monks.


The large detailed face makes me wonder if this is a caricature, but I don't know enough to say.

And finally, when you leave the stream and come back to street level, there will be plenty of pocha to appease your hunger pangs.


I mentioned above that this was my fourth lantern festival, and you can see posts about the others (each one has a different theme) by clicking on the label cloud.

Children's Day 2016

Bugaksan provides a striking background during a visit to the downtown Jongno district of Seoul. Thursday was Children's Day, and Jongno is the place to go to see the festivities. This year, not a lot was going on at the Cheonggyecheon:


One feature along the walls of the stream are a long series of painted tiles (supposedly the longest work of its kind in the world) which depict a visit by King Jungjo to Hwaseong fortress, based on a painting by one of Korea's great artists, Kim Hongdo. I have below juxtaposed the "money shot" with a similar representation in lantern.


The other key gathering place is Gwanghwamun Plaza, which I visited with old pal Helen in 2014, when technically Children's Day was cancelled following the Sewol Ferry disaster. This year, the area in front of Admiral Yi is dedicated to the memory of the children who died that day during school trips to Jeju-do.


There are lots of activities designed for children.


There were also a few performance art installations, such as this mystical egg nursery, visited by playful dino-lizard creatures who took some time to menace small children:


People were fascinated by this guy, who seemed frozen in place all day long. I tried to wake him up.


My Spring Break activities will conclude on Sunday with my first trip of the season to watch FC Seoul play at Sangam World Cup stadium. Stay tuned.

Seoul Lantern Festival 2015

The Seoul Lantern Festival (서울빛초롱축제) began on November 7th, and closes tonight. It is held on the Cheonggyecheon, a "stream" running through downtown Seoul. I made it there last night, as my previous attempts at the foray were delayed by poor weather. I also attended this event in 2009 and 2012--click on the appropriate tag in the cloud to your right.

Since it was the last weekend, I knew it would be crowded, and it was. I don't really remember much of a line to go down to the "stream" area itself, but on this day, the line snaked around for 25 minutes. Credit to the organizers is due, however, as it was very sensible and smooth.

First, a few shots from street-level:


The first series of lanterns as you proceed from the ramp are all large-scale models of historical Korean buildings. These are lanterns--paper-covered, traditionally-built, although as a nod to safety they are lit by electricity.


The most charming lanterns, in my opinion, are the ones that depict everyday peasant life, such as children playing paengi, a spinning top game, or people sitting at a restaurant counter.


Of course, with thousands and thousands of visitors, it's not all paper lanterns the size of parade floats, There's also real people sitting at real food counters. for example, grilled squid, ddeokbokki, "egg bread", and chicken on a stick:


The Cheonggye stream was a signature project of Seoul Mayor, later Korean President, Lee Myung-bak, and although it was very controversial at the time, it is today a very popular recreation spot for Seoulites. I think it is well-done, and among the elements is a massive "room" under one of the bridges, where any number of events can be staged. During this festival, you can write out your message and wishes for the coming year. You can see the lanterns arranged behind me:


Many of the lanterns are best viewed from one side, but here's one which took viewers on each side of the stream into account:

Children's Day 2014

I arranged to meet my pal "Heron" at the King Sejong statue in Gwanghwamun Plaza on Monday, which was Children's Day, to have a look round the downtown area at all the Children's Day festivities. While awaiting her arrival, I had the remarkable coincidence of running into Mr Hwang who was my first co-teacher and "handler" at Young-il HS lo these many years ago. I had seen him a couple of times since then, but the kids have grown up a lot in the meantime:


Heron and I spent a pleasant afternoon, first at Gwanghwamun--she had not yet been to the Sejong and Admiral Yi museums located underneath, then walking along the Cheonggicheon. There were yellow ribbons everywhere, a sad remembrance of the youth who died in the Sewol ferry disaster, but many of the usual activities had been cancelled. There were many visitors, nonetheless.


The lanterns adorned the stream for Buddha's birthday celebrations. The red-crested crane is Korea's national bird, seen also on the 500 W coin.


The weather was a tad chilly but the sky was, as you can see, glorious. We walked quite a long way down the stream, and I noticed these painted tiles for the first time (I'm sure they've always been there):


For those not in the know, the Cheonggi stream was once a blight on Seoul's downtown, an open sewer; Hyundai Industries was contracted to cover it over and make it a street, back when Lee Myung-bak was its chairman. Twenty years later, when Lee was Seoul mayor, he led a move to restore in into a recreation and relaxation spot. Most Seoullites today will probably choose not to remember how unpopular that decision was at the time, since it is taken for granted today, eight years later.


We meandered through Insadong, then made our way to Itaewon dor dinner. We ate at Zelen, the Hungarian place, and it was delicious, as usual. We shared a shopska salad, she had chicken in white sauce, I had stuffed pork. And white sangria, as if that's even possible.


A nice ending to a lovely day out. Thanks, Heron!