Buddha's birthday and the Lantern Festival

Welcome to Buddha's birthday celebration in Seoul. It's called the Lantern Festival and it was awesome!!!

This festival is, of itself, worthy of a trip to Korea! You have to get there early though. There is so much to do that it is difficult to fit it all in one day. There are over 100 booths of activity to keep you busy during the day and most of it is FREE. They provide materials to make your very own lotus lantern, wood carving paintings, clay work, small lotus buds and on and on. It was GREAT fun!

Here you pour water over a Baby Buddha to declare your intentions for the year.

Here we learn about 'traditional' tea ceremony.

And then there is the temple itself which is quite beautiful............

But the parade at night is the spectacular culmination of the day. Over 100,000 lanterns light the streets of Seoul. Since pictures are worth a 1,000 words........................ here's a few images from that magical night.

And this last image is the sweet face of a young monk. His mother (I am assuming) was close at hand and she was beaming with pride.

Big Buddha love to all!!!