Lantern Festival in Seoul

Anyone who knows me, knows I love lanterns and lights and all that stuff. Or if you've read my post from the Jinju Lantern Festival last year, I traveled for hours just to get to that festival for one night to see those lights.


When I learned that there was a lantern festival in Seoul, I had to go. I just wanted to see the beautiful lights and everything again. And Seoul is a lot closer than Jinju. I traveled around a bit in the hours before I got to the festival, and I was very surprised when I actually arrived. The festival was along the Cheonggyecheon Stream, a man-made stream in the heart of Seoul. Because of this, it was very cramped, and you couldn't stand too long at any one lantern. It was missing some of the grandness I had seen at the Jinju lantern festival. I think it might be better if they did this festival on the Han river. It's much bigger.

The floats were nice though. Each one showed some sort of history or represented a story, either Korean or foreign. There was a whole section of lanterns from stories that any American child would immediately recognize. It was also a lot shorter than I expected it to be, but I'm still glad I went. It was beautiful too.