Jinju Lantern Festival

---

The city of Jinju, an hour and a half from Busan, hosts a week long lantern festival every year along their river with a myriad of activities and events organised. We'd planned to spend the whole day in Jinju sightseeing and participating in the activities, but due to a very late night the night before it was 6pm when we finally arrived! First stop was dinner and then we walked to Namgang river for the lantern festival.

The tradition of floating lanterns on Namgang River in Jinju City dates back to the 1592 Japanese invasion of Korea. In October 1592, during a battle between Japanese and Korean soldiers around Jinju Fortress, Jinju people flew lanterns high up in the sky as a military signal and communication tool with soldiers outside the fortress, while floating lanterns and torches along the river. Even after the war, people continued the tradition of floating lanterns down the river to pay tribute to the the brave souls who had been lost during battle.

As we walked along the riverbank, beers in hand, we could see giant lantern sculptures in all shapes and designs along the path and in the river. Many of the lanterns represent the nation’s traditions and symbols - tigers, traditional instruments, Korean dances etc, and some were just pure random! Further down the river we could see people making their own 'wish' lanterns, before placing them in the river "for their dreams to be transported and turned into reality".

We went up into the city's fortress, which was like walking into an enchanted lantern forest. There was a kid's concert going on above it, a woman in traditional Hanbok clothes was singing on stage. Outside street vendors were cooking giant vats of some insect that looked like small beetles - the smell was horrific! We crossed over the bridge and posed for some band photos underneath. We walked down the tunnel of lanterns and sat by the river's edge watching the wishing lanterns float slowly by. It was nice to see but there wasn't all that much else to do, so we just caught the next bus back to Busan. Well worth a visit though!

---