Buddha, it's your birthday

IF you've ever wondered why the lotus flower is the symbol of Buddhism - here's why. According to a very informative little pamphlet, the lotus grows in mud and yet it thrives and remains untouched by its surrounds - much like the potential of a person who can rise above their environment.
Today is Buddha's birthday and a public holiday (yay on both accounts!)

About 15 million Koreans, or one-third of the population, practice Buddhism. A quick Google shows there's about 10,000 Buddhist temples in Korea and 20,000 monks.

Every year on the Sunday before Buddha's birthday, Hang-gook celebrates with the Lotus Lantern Festival in Seoul. The streets in Jong-no, surrounding Insadong, are closed to traffic for the day and thousands of people get busy making the most exquisite paper lanterns, setting candles inside of them and hanging them on carrying sticks.
I would like to say I have a lovely lantern hanging from my bedroom window sill as testament to this, but unfortunately late nights in Seoul make for lazy Sunday mornings, and the thought of returning to Seoul so early in the day was too unbearable.

We did make it in for the big finale though, which is a two-hour lantern parade at dusk, winding through the city streets and leading to the Buddhist Jogyesa Temple.

The temple was breathtaking. Rows and rows of halo-like lanterns strung up in vivid colours. Even on Sunday evening there was a very dedicated fellow up in a small cherry picker, attaching people's messages to lanterns as they painted them. Inside temples, Buddhist's gathered to pray and pour holy water over a small monument; outside, a big metal bath was filled with puddles of hot wax as people lit and blew out candles, emitting a gorgeous soft glow of light.

The parade was excellent. It was nice to feel Seoul come alive with a bit of a community feel and my goodness, were there westerners! Loads and loads of westerners, milling about holding their lanterns and making me extremely jealous. Although that soon dissipated when a very generous young Korean family gave us two of their lanterns, albeit fairly roughed up from a day's walking. At first I was most impressed with their kindness, and then I quickly realised it was just irritating carrying two enormous lanterns, with candles burning inside, through crowds of people. In hindsight, I think they too realised that and just wanted to get rid of them! Still, I felt guilt when we put them to rest on a park bench and quickly walked away.

I have been told to get myself to the closest Buddhist temple today, as there's celebrations galore. But instead I'm being whisked away for a romantic weekend to Deok-jeok-do, one of the main islands off Incheon.

Oh, poor me.

A post just wouldn't be complete without one food photo: these are fantastic honeycomb logs rolled in roasted peanuts. Drool away.