November is finally beginning to feel like the pre-winter month of evil that I remember, so I could think of no better way to spend a freezing Tuesday night than to walk along a man-made stream in the middle of Seoul, looking at bright shiny things at the Seoul Lantern Festival!
All joking aside, I’d been looking forward to checking out the Lantern Festival since missing the festival last year. I love Asian lanterns, so I was really excited to see the massive lanterns that Seoul had on display. I definitely wasn’t disappointed.
The Seoul Lantern Festival started in 2009 along the Cheonggyecheon (“Clear Water Stream”) in downtown Seoul. Set on the small stream are over a kilometre of massive lanterns, most of them going with the central theme of that year. This year’s theme is “Old Story of Seoul” which is wonderfully vague that it permits pretty much anything. There are lanterns from both national and international participants, and displays of other international lantern festivals at the main entrance to the festival.
The Lantern Festival was really fun, but I felt like I went with the wrong company. As much as I love my friend Alyssa, who came along with me, we both couldn’t help but notice that almost everyone else walking along the stream was a couple or family. After walking the full length of the lantern display there and back (which I believe was 3km?) we both felt very lonely and depressed. So we went to Bennigans and ate Death by Chocolate and whined over how we lacked boyfriends. As you do in such a situation.
The thing about the Lantern Festival is that it’s hard to describe them. And it’s just not worth explaining when I have photos. So here, a photo post, for once!
