10.07.2012

경남 진주 남강 유등 축제 "Jin Ju Festival of Lights"

The Chuseok holiday was Sunday and Monday, and then Wednesday was another National holiday (Foundation day, I think) so Tuesday was considered a "sandwich" day so we got that day off work too! :) We came home from Seoul Tuesday morning and then turned around and joined some church friends for a trip down to Jin Ju. It is one of the professor's hometown and he wanted to introduce us to this amazing Light Festival. We were honored to be invited along with Jared, some of our international student friends, and two professors and their families, we headed on a 2 hour road trip to Jin Ju. I always love to see parts of Korea that I have never seen. The scenery was beautiful and such a relaxing drive. 
















After the picture, one of the professors told us to pose the Korean way: the following picture :) 


Professor Choi and his wife and Professor Lee and his wife 

 

Before the festival, we went to a meat buffet. I had never been to a restaurant like this and it was fun. They had all the sides in one place, all the various kinds of meat and seafood, rice, soups, etc and then you just ate family style :) 

If you want to know more about the Light Festival, click here (Its an English website). 
We arrived to the place and still were unsure what we were coming to see. As we drove over a bridge, Professor Lee said, "look to your left".... then we saw it. It was gorgeous!!!! My phone camera was unable to adequately capture the beauty but you get the gist of it :) 




00:00:01 ~ This was for Seoul's controversial fencing loss in the Olympics because the time keeper started the match without starting the timer and the opponent won with an extra second on the clock. Korea filed a grievance but lost. 










These lanterns each represented a family's prayer. Buddhist temples collect money for these lanterns.
 It was so beautiful but also sad since people are basically paying for their prayers.... 






Apparently she is above the law... :) 















On the way home, we stopped and got coffee and chips and after snack time, we had sharing time :) The English major student who invited us (John, who is Professor Choi's son) studied last summer in Canada. He told us that he understood how special holidays can be lonely for foreigners because he had felt it himself, so he wanted this holiday to be special for us and not lonely... I almost cried. Then, Professor Lee said that he has been attending this festival for many years, but because he got to spend this year with his best friend (Professor Choi) and us, he would never forget this year. 
I officially love sharing time. 

I am so glad we had this amazing opportunity and I'm so thankful for such amazing co-workers and friends. It was a tremendous experience and we really enjoyed the festival! 
Thanks to Professor Lee and Professor Choi and their families for including us! 

1 comment:

Jenofwa said...

So beautiful! Thanks for sharing these beautiful pictures!