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Hey all!
This was one hell of a Birthday party!!!! Buddha's birthday was actually 12th May, but the celebrations started a week before on the night of Saturday 3rd with the Lantern Eve parade, this was to celebrate the eve of the Lantern parade the following day.
This first night consisted of some lanterns, traditional dancers, singing and general merriment!! The costumes were great - my favorite was the lotus flowers, they each resembled a petal and carried the lotus flower lantersn but when combined made one huge flower which flickered by the candle light it was incredible! Bear in mind however we thought this was maybe the main parade and we had understood the dates wrong!!! At the end everybody was dancing in the streets, the atmosphere was amazing 😊 Can't resist a little bit of street dancing can I!! hehe!!
Next day was the day of the big parade and street festival, we headed first to the temple which was covered in lanterns!! The lanterns were used to paint a picture which was suspended at head height across the entire temple floor, engulfing the temple, trees, statues and you walked under them as they lit up by the
sun.
We collected our lanterns, and then headed down the street fair, made our paper lotus flowers, (which due to the rain wilted!!!)
Then we found our position in the crowd and waited for the show to begin. The pre parade consisted of the army bands and such and lasted about an hour, then came the lanterns, and they just didn't stop!! Some floats but mainly just thousands of marching lantern bearing people!!! Dancing, playing musical instruments, from all over the world!!
The lantern parade went on for over 2 hours! It was incredible and I've never seen anything like it.
It started at Dongdaemun stadium and worked down to Jonggak (the main streets in the Insadong region)
Once we reached the Jonggak crossroads everybody gathered and listened to the live music.
It was a fantastic thing to experience, and the best festival atmosphere I've ever seen 😊
The night finished late and we headed back to our motel.
Next day we wandered up the stream - the same one from Christmas, only this time it was dotted with lanterns, flowers and people playing it was great!
Overall a fantastic Buddha's birthday! I can't begin to describe the impact
this celebration has on the whole contry - lanterns literally line every street you go along, from the smallest town, to the biggest city. As you reach a monumental sight they just explode in color, going to really miss them brightening the place up!!
Well I've got more tales of my holidays but I'll leave it at that today!!
Love you all lots! and only 16 weeks to go!! It's a really scary thought to be surrounded by western folk again, I'll be trying to talk to everyone, excited that I can speak English to someone finally!!Going to get some funny stares!!! (ye ye I know, no different to normal!)
Hugs to all
Cer xxxx
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da whale
non-member comment
well what can you say
how many lanterns were on parade and are they all hand made as they look fantastic did the lanterns go on display any where else or just for this prosession. brill pic's keep them coming