Goodbye South Korea. Goodbye kimchi. Goodbye adjummas and adjoshis. Goodbye students and teachers. Goodbye serviceu. Goodbye couple clothing. Goodbye dogs in makeup. Goodbye perms and sequins. Goodbye Mokpo, Suncheon, Gwangju, Naju, and Seoul. Goodbye Konglish. Goodbye KPop. Goodbye trucks selling random things. Goodbye delicious Korean food. Goodbye to everyone I’ve met during my time in Korea. I’ll miss it all.
Category Archives: Korean Festivals
2010 Jinju Namgang Festival (Jinju Lantern Festival)
I was able to go to the Jinju Lantern Festival with my friend Breagh this past weekend. The festival is held to remember a battle in the late 1500s where invading Japanese forces were defeated at Jinju. The Korean commander at Jinju would let loose lanterns at night to send signals to supporting forces in the area. The festival is held in the city of Jinju in South Gyeongsong Province.
I attended the festival with friends back in 2008 as well and had a great time. The festival was canceled last year due to concerns over H1N1 (swine flu).
We arrived early afternoon into Jinju, found a love motel to stay the night, then proceeded to the festival. The festival is quite large and there are lots of things to do and see. The first thing we decided on was food. We found the food stalls and ordered BBQ pork on a spit, Korean pizza (파전), and, beer. We filled up on food then walked around the festival. Much of the festival was the same as it was 2008 but in different locations. The lanterns are absolutely beautiful and range from cartoon characters to historical depictions of events in Korea to representing different countries. At night they light up and look stunning.
The weather started to get bad early evening. Like many of the Koreans, Breagh and I hid in a soju tent and enjoyed some soju and snacks while waiting for the rain to pass. It never did.
The rain kept on getting worse as the night wore on. Breagh and I braved it for as long as we could tolerate but eventually caved and went back to the motel to dry off and hope for a dryer and nicer Sunday.
A nice Sunday was awaiting us when we woke up. We went back to the food stalls and found some Turkish men who were selling (amazing) kebabs. We gorged on those then walked around the grounds more. Breagh tried on some Hanboks the night before during the rainstorm and we wanted to do that again during nicer weather. We paid the 3000W fee to try on the Hanboks and got to wander around the festival grounds for the next 5-10 minutes dressed up like Royal Koreans. It was fun. Hanboks are beautiful but they are heavy fabric and you will get very hot wearing them for a long period of time. We took off our royal robes and went looking for swan boats.
Swan boats were also spotted by Breagh on Saturday. Weather ruined our plans of doing that the day before. But not Sunday. We paid for our ticket and waited 45 minutes for a boat to come back so we could hop on. We then had 25 minutes to take our swan paddle boat around some of the nearby lanterns. After avoiding several near collisions with Koreans, our time with the boats were up. We turned back to shore, hopped off the boats, and made our way back to the Jinju bus terminal.
If you’ve never been to the festival before I suggest you go. The festival runs from October 1 to October 12.
The website for the festival is http://www.yudeung.com/ .
붕어빵 (Bungeoppang)
Red Bean Filled Fish
On the bus back from Jinju to Suncheon, Breagh bought us some snacks to eat. The snacks included a bag of these fish pastries. The Korean name for these snacks is 붕어빵 (Bungeoppang). These are traditionally filled with red bean filling but can also be filled with custard or ice cream. These are sold most commonly during the colder seasons in Korea. A 천원 (1000 Won) will buy you a bag of four or five of these lovely snacks. These can be found all across the country at most open air vendors. If you never tried them, you should.
2010 Gangjin Celadon Festival
I went with my friend Alex to the Gangjin Celadon Festival yesterday (August 14, 2010). I’ve been meaning to go to the festival ever since 2008 and this could very well be my last opportunity to (assuming I leave Korea next June) so I was going to go rain or shine. The weather has been wet and shitty but yesterday was not too bad. Overcast and humid. Gangjin is located within Jeolla province and is famous for celadon (ceramics) and holds a yearly festival to celebrate celadon. The festival does not take place within the town/city of Gangjin but rather a 30 minute shuttle bus drive out to the Gangjin celadon kilns. The bus dropped us off at the festival gates where we were greeted by a beautiful garden and wooden statues.
There were many different activities you could partake in. The first thing Alex and I decided to do was etching a ceramic vase. For Man Won (10,000 W), you could get a vase that could etch your own design in (or use an example sheet to recreate famous Korean celadon etchings) then the people would glaze your vase and mail it to you. Alex and I did this (the only foreigners at the time doing it) and garnered quite a bit of attention from Koreans with cameras and eventually a tv crew. Alex was interviewed for a newcast and we were recorded for the show. Fun! We finished our etchings and moved on to get some food and some beer.
We refreshed with food and drink and kept on walking about. There was a booth where you could make mosaics of celadon using broken celadon pieces. Hammers were provided. Seeing tiny kids smash ceramics with hammers was quite the sight. There was also a booth where you could take clay and fashion your own clay vessels using clumps of clay. Lots of kids were taking part in this activity in particular.
We then tried to make our own cups and cowls on a pottery spinning. It looks easy when you watch someone do it but doing it yourself is quite another story. Move too fast or too slow when shaping can ruin the attempt. Luckily there were Koreans who were training/majoring in pottery who were helping. My bowl didn’t turn out too horrible thanks to the kind woman who helped me on the wheel.
Alex and I walked around more of the festival grounds, looking at shop stalls, mockups, and sculptures. We walked around within the museum and culture centers then decided to call it a day once that was done. I’m glad I finally made it to the festival. I had a great time and would recommend checking this festival out if you have a chance to next year. I’m counting down the days till the Jinju Lantern Festival.
You can see more pictures of the festival on my Flickr Site by clicking on the Gangjin Celadon Festival Link.
Gangjin Celadon Festival
Gangjin is a city in Jeollanamdo and was/is known for its celadon/pottery past and present. There is a yearly festival held in the region to celebrate the Celadon. I have not made it in previous years but will be going there this weekend.
The website can be seen here http://eng.gangjinfes.or.kr/ and the festival runs up until this coming Sunday (August 15).
Korea Chrysanthemum Festival in Hamypeong
Some friends and I made our way to Hampyeong on Saturday to check out the Hampyeong Chrysanthemum Festival. In Korean it is the 대한민국국향대전 and the festival runs from October 22 to November 22. The festival takes place a few minutes away from the bus terminal at the Expo Park. There’s really not much more to say about it so I will let the pictures I took do most of the talking.
The gate was extremely beautiful.
