My previous year in Korea, I had missed the lantern festival because I thought it was the weekend after Buddha's Birthday, when in fact it is the weekend before it. I did not make the same mistake twice, and made sure I was in Seoul for the event. On the subway ride into the city, I started rereading Herman Hesse's Siddhartha, which certainly seemed appropriate. I had read it in high school, but my freshman year English teacher saw so many metaphors of her own invention in the texts that we barely discussed the ideas that were actually there, which soured me on the books we read. I found myself quite liking Siddhartha the second time around.
The Lantern Festival is nearly as elaborate and impressive as the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena. The floats clearly take a great deal of work and effort to build.
Some lanterns had animatronic elements.
Between the large shaped lanterns were scores of people - usually in traditional dress -carrying handheld lanterns of various shapes and colors.
It wouldn't be Korea without a depiction of Admiral Yi Sun Sin's Turtle Ships.
I was watching the parade from an intersection that had low power lines, so I saw many lanterns that had to change shape or otherwise lower themselves to avoid the obstacles overhead.
Some floats were more Buddhist themed than others.
I instantly recognized the Vajra, the symbolic weapon for removing temptation. The symbol had been all over the
Guinsa temple complex, and I have noticed it in Buddhist art ever since then.
A convenient way to remember the usage of swastikas is that the top arm of the Buddist one faces left, while the Nazi swastika faces right (which maps nicely onto our terms for the political spectrum). I suppose this lantern had the arms facing the correct way for Buddhism from the perspective of the other side of the street...
After the parade, I wandered the artificial stream than runs through Seoul, and which had been decorated for the occasion.
The projections on the wall looked surprisingly three dimensional.
I have no idea what Donald Rumsfeld was doing in the long chain of various images.
Some of the decorations reminded me of Renn Fayre at Reet.
I liked some of the more permanent artworks along the stream as well as the festival decorations.
The pumped in waterfall that begins the stream has a pool beneath it, and several lanterns were placed there.
Not far away, I noticed shadows projected onto buildings, and caught the end of a very modern theatre production.
The actors were roped into harnesses, and there was a great moment where one 'fell' in slow motion.
On the subway home, I finished reading Siddhartha. I can't believe how much I dismissed the wisdom of the book the first time I read it, bad teacher or no. I was so excited and full of life and the joy of existence that instead of going to sleep right away, I wandered the stream near my apartment, enjoying the sounds of the stream or of two rocks clinking together.
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