Lanterns Galore!

Happy Lantern Festival!

The tradition of floating lanterns down the river in Jinju has been in place since the Japanese invasion of 1592 when lanterns were used as a military signal and communication tool. Now, once a year the Nam river is illuminated with thousands of colourful lanterns for people to enjoy.

The Lantern Festival kicked-off with a spectacular fireworks display which pleased the child in me exceedingly. We then had a gander at the many glorious lanterns on display around the musical fountain. In this particular area there were mainly superheroes and cartoon characters so there was a surplus of over-stimulated children running around. It was amusing to behold their antics though. For some bizarre reason some of the kids had been provided with stilts and watching a small child fall over never ceases to be funny.



There was a wibbly wobbly wonderful pontoon bridge stretching across the river from which one could admire the many lanterns afloat on the water. The queue to cross said bridge was about a mile long so two of my fellow round-eyes and I hatched a devious plan to skip to the front of the queue. Our initial plan was to try to surreptitiously sneak into the line unbeknownst to those around us. However, we then remembered that as the only white people in the near vicinity we were likely to stand out. We therefore decided to play the ‘dumb foreigner’ card and simply walk to the front of the line. As members of a backward heathen land we could not be expected to be aware of the intricate rules of queueing. Happily, this impertinent plan worked and we walked merrily across the river.



The lanterns on other side were even more impressive; they ranged from dragons, Disney princesses and boxing kangaroos to axe-wielding flying tigers, an orthodox Christian Santa and, my personal favourite, fire-breathing peacocks.























































The trail alongside the river had a wide variety of food stalls so we were able to dine on Japanese food whilst we admired the spectacle (I’m not sure why Japanese food was being served at a festival honouring the downfall of the Japanese but there you go.)



The most amusing part of the festival was the appearance of two Korean boys who stalked me and my golden haired friend along the river. Despite the fact that there were thousands of florescent lanterns everywhere they were more interested in taking pictures of our exotic faces. : D

On Sunday we recovered from the previous night’s festivities by relaxing in a ‘Cat Café.’ Here you are provided with a cat to play with along with your coffee. The cats were very fancy indeed. They came in many exotic breeds and they even had their own king in the form of a very hairy tabby with a majestic mane. The cats were almost too well-bred for my liking though; many of them preferred to be admired from afar rather than petted.

























We attended a screening of a moving picture show at the home of a friend later that evening. The movie on the billing was ‘A Street Car Named Desire’ starring Marlon ‘likes to change his shirt a lot’ Brando. The same people who had attended the play in Daegu were reunited for this showing. Our host was very professional indeed; he had even made out a program with a synopsis of the movie plot and a schedule of events for the evening! I also had my first taste of jambalaya which was nice.

The long weekend has come to an end and we are back at work but the Lantern Festival is not over yet! We went down to Jinju Castle after work last night to have a look at some of the lanterns displayed within the fortress walls. There were lanterns depicting royal processions, duelling warriors, fantastic creatures and market folk selling their wares. We also had a great view of the musical fountain from atop the fortress walls.:)