A few Korean guards prime your eyes for the brightly-lit up lanterns – going during the nighttime is easily the best time to see these shapes and colors.
Very little information was available in English; the signs for each lantern were mainly in Korean, though a few also had Chinese characters to explain or interpret the piece a bit more.
Gwanghwamun (gate) – no idea if the real thing will look like that once it’s completed.
Possibly in the name of adding international flavor, some lanterns were less about throwing out lots of light and more about displaying some subtlety.
Here there be Chinese dragons!
OK, this lantern’s got me. Anybody have a clue?
Either they ran out of room, or they wanted to ensure the aliens would know where to look. The two smaller pyramids are attached via some wires running overhead.
Definitely a lot of traditional lanterns, though Korea finds a way to remind you of its modern-day life:
The tires bounced up and down as though you were watching a Monster Truck Rally, while the floating skateboard rotated around a circle.
Symbolizing perfect wisdom and royal power, the Buddha begins a trek on a white elephant towards Cheonggye Plaza and the beginning of the stream. Funny that he’s 2/3 of the way – about a kilometer or so – back.
Inside of a tunnel of smaller lanterns in a rainbow order.
The traditional ssireum – Korean wrestling – and a couple pagodas in the back.
Birds – The Seoul Patch mentions these are red-crowned cranes, which “is a Taoist symbol of longevity and immortality; it is also revered for its nobility”. Good enough for me.
While walking back underneath one of the tunnels, one of the most impressive (and creative) series came to light:
No, that’s not a Mighty Morphin’ Power Ranger – that’s my Year of the Dog! All 12 Chinese astrological animals are presented anthropomorphically correct – no idea why a snake gets arms, but it does.
Although it ends on Sunday, the pictures and memories will live on for a long time to come.
Directions to Cheonggyecheon / Lantern Festival: Take line 1 or 2 of the Seoul subway system to the City Hall station. Take exit 4 to street level and walk about 400 meters. Look for the swirled needle pointing skyward and turn right. Keep walking straight, and head down to stream level (about 7 meters below street level) for the best views. Go at night, but bundle up and watch out for crowds. Free admission.
most of them seem to be recycled from the lantern parade on Buddha's Birthday . . . except for the Chinese and Japanese lanterns, I know I saw all of them there this spring.
Wow, they look so great. When I saw the title of your post, I thought, "Wow, Chris is a little behind about updating his posts." I always thought the Seoul Lantern Fest was around Buddha's B-day. I will have to check this out. 🙂 Thanks!
Your third picture there has Japanese on it, in case you were wondering.
Photo #7 would be a paean to Chinese opera, I think.
Thanks for the mensh.
Great photos. I was in the area yesterday but didn't make it in the cold to see it lit up. I imagined it though and that was enough haha
Gorgeous. And yeah, the third photo seems to be starring a "guest appearance" from the Aomori Nebuta festival in Japan. Cool! (Plenty of great photos and videos of that online if you google.)
#7 looks like Chinese opera to me as well.
I really want to go to a lantern festival somewhere, someday. Colorful glowing things have universal appeal.
What a stunning display of a different culture. I'm so happy for you having this opportunity, Chris. I'm going to subscribe to you on my LJ F-list. Thanks for sharing this journey with us. 🙂
Gorgeous photos! Thanks!~
OK, this lantern's got me. Anybody have a clue?
As Tuttle already pointed out, it's a reference to Peking (Beijing) Theater.
All 12 Chinese astrological animals are presented anthropomorphically correct – no idea why a snake gets arms, but it does.
Did they also have legs? If not I could very easily see arms being used in place of vestigial legs.
[…]the Lantern Festival, sponsored by the rather silly-named 'Visit Korea Year'.
I don't know … is it any worse than the incorrect information you have in your profile information? 😉
@Acorn: Incorrect info in my profile? Please explain – I know it's an old picture BTW…
Well, your leading sentence is:
I'm Chris Backe – like most foreigners in Korea, I teach English as a full-time job / source of income.
According to the figures from Andrei Lankov (taken from the 30 July 2009 Ministry of Immigration Report — you've posted similar figures on your website as well) there are (roughly) 1,155,654 "foreigners" in Korea. If one adds up the figures from the USA, Canada, Australia, and Great Britain the result comes out to 159,409. Now, not everyone in Korea from one of those countries is an English teacher, but since it's hard to narrow things down any further we'll just have to assume that there's some inflation with the numbers. The total from the four nations comes out to 13.7% of the total.
Granted, that doesn't include teachers from South Africa, Ireland, or New Zealand — so let's throw in everyone that was recorded in the "Other" category as well. This will once again include a large number of people who aren't English teachers, so keep in mind that the final tally will be even more exaggerated. The extra 40,633 from that category brings our total up to 200,042 for 17% of the total population. Honestly, I don't think I've ever seen a definition of "most" that would allow one to claim that 17% of a population qualifies as "most" of that population.
So yeah, it is misleading (or "silly") to call it "Visit Korea Year" while listing three years in the advertisement, but it's also misleading (or "silly") to say "most" foreigners are English teachers when that's clearly not the case. 😉
@Acorn: so it sounds like the concern is about the word 'most'. Perhaps it could be fixed by saying 'most Americans' in Korea, or 'most people from English-speaking countries'. While it's at best a concern of mostly academic notions, I've corrected my profile to indicate that I'm like 'about 20,000' other foreigners in Korea.