The Lantern Festival

It was the Lantern Festival in Seoul this Sunday, which celebrates Buddha's birthday. Or to be more accurate, the day that he achieved enlightenment. Samantha and myself met up with Kristin and caught an early Metro into Seoul.

Food and a little shopping later, and we went up to where the festival was to happen in Insadong. We'd not been to that part of Seoul before, and were pleasently suprised by it. It's a chilled and arty area of the city, with lots of little boutique shops and art galleries.

So before the start of the festival, which didn't begin until it started to get dark, we had a wander around. Meandering in and out of interesting shops, stopping for a drink in a traditional tea shop, and coming face-to-face with a robot, all seemed par for the course in this part of the city.

As night fell we found our places along the route of the festival. Thousands of people filed passed holding home-made paper lanterns aloft. Many dressing in traditional costume, they were sporadically followed by troops of robed monks and brightly lit floats also intricately built of paper and beautifully painted.

It was a good experience, and very much worth seeing. This was a once in a lifetime thing for us, as we will not be in Korea from the next festival.