After having been rained out for the past two weekends, we finally got a group together and headed into downtown Seoul to see the Autumn Lantern Festival. Each year artists from around Korea build elaborate lanterns and place them on display in the middle of the Cheonggyecheon River, an uban park area that runs through town.
It's worth noting that the lanterns aren't really lanterns. They are more like stationary luminous parade floats that have more electric lights inside them than most people's houses. It is also worth noting that the Cheonggyecheon river isn't really a river. It is little more than a creek - and one with a checkered past. After the Korean war the Cheonggyecheon became the site of a large shanty town. Over time the river became so gross and polluted that the city covered it up and paved over it. But in 2005, urban planners in Seoul decided to excavate the "river" and turn it into the pleasant walking path it is today.
Some of the lanterns were awesome.
Some were studies in Asian quirkiness
Some were studies in American quirkiness (I have no idea why this one was there)
Some, like these cosmetics cases, were clearly advertisments for products (but still beautiful)
Some were made to appeal to the kids in the crowd.
And when I say crowd, I mean it. Seoul is home ot over 24 million people, and I think all of them were there that night. But even though the narrow walkway was packed with people, it was still fun because everyone was so happy to be there. It was like Zoolights on steroids. There was a definite this-is-the-start-of-the-holidays vibe, and it was fun to be a part of it.
A stroll along the bustling Cheonggyecheon. Actually, the crowds weren't too bad at this point.
Here is one of my favorite lanterns. Look at the detail in his costume!
Most of the temples and palaces here have lotus ponds with carp in them. It was nice to see them all lit up for the holidays.
These elephants were almost life-sized
This one was from the Philippines, and instead of using a synthetic material, the artist used capiz shells. This made me think of my mother, who loved Christmas orniments made out of capiz, and would have been delighted by the whole lantern festival experience.
There were a lot of selfies happening there that night. So when in Seoul, do as the Seoulites!
It worries me how good my selfie technique is getting. One of these days I'm going to break down and get a selfie-stick! In fact, a little further down the river we came across this beautiful bridge that I dubbed "the bridge of selfies" check out the brief video and you'll see why.
The Bridge of Selfies. I half expected to see Tom Hanks takiing a selfie with a KGB agent.
Resistance is futile!
Under the bridge there was a place for kids to place a little floating lantern in the water and let it get carried away by the current. And a little ways down the stream, they reached an impass and ended up in a big lantern pile-up.
As long as I'm on the topic of bridges, there was another one that was straight out of Saturday Night Fever. In fact, this bridge was so cool that the city posted crossing guards on it to keep people from clogging the traffic by taking sefies. These workers were like Sith Lord wanabes, whacking people with their red light sabers for spening too much time composing a picture.
Crossing the John Travolta Memorial Bridge
Apparently, the more spectacular the lantern was, the closer it was to the Bridge of Selfies. These next few were stunning, in both size and attention to detail.
East meets West.
This is a typical Korean ancient city gate, except this one glows and is a bit smaller than usual.
This lantern depicts a traditional Korean Buddhist temple, and includes an altar in the interior.
This one shows a city wall, complete with warriors and workers.
On our way back to the bus stop we went through a part that was geared towards the younger audiance. It was less spectacular, and more comercialized (about a dozen Transformers lanterns), but still offered us an opportunity to see contemporary Korean culture in the form of children's cartoon characters.
Okay, so these ones were kind of creepy.
These are apparently super popular children's cartoon characters. You see them all over the place, and the little kids were super excited to see them at the lantern festival. Check out the adorable little girl dancing and singing along in the video below.
If you read this whole blog post - thank you. I know it was longer than normal, but I just love these pictures. I splurged on a Pentax K-50 DSLR before we came to Korea, and I just love the images it captures. This is the first time I used it at night, and it really came through for me. I was able to set the ISO to 1600 and take all of these without using a tripod.
