Lantern Festival for Buddha's Birthday!

Photo Credit: Yeon Deung Hoe

For the past week Korea has been holding festivities throughout the country to celebrate Buddha's Birthday, including enormous lantern parades and ancient religious rites. This is an important holiday in Korea, as about half of religious people in Korea practice some form of Buddhism. Korea also has a long traditional of Buddhism, stretching back centuries.

In Seoul, there are more than one hundred thousand lotus lanterns across the city. They're as hard to miss as they are beautiful and varied. Believers write their wishes on a piece of paper and put it inside a lotus lantern as a form of prayer.

While most of the lanterns take the shape of a lotus, there are also unique lanterns that resemble cartoon characters, animals, pavilions, monks, mothers, fathers and more.

Photo Credit: Yeon Deung Hoe

Samgwangsa Temple is one of the best-known places for the festival and its Lotus Lantern Festival was selected as one of the "50 Beautiful Places to Visit in Korea" by CNN Go. It's easy to imagine the beauty of this festival.

Photo Credit: Korea Tourism Organization

If you're interested in learning more about lantern festival, visit the Yeon Deung Hoe (Lotus Lantern Festival in Korean) website. Happy Buddha's Birthday to everyone who celebrates this holiday. ^^

About the author by Sophie Choi

Born in Korea and raised on three different continents, I have always been enthusiastic to share the uniqueness of Korean culture and design. On top of that, the advanced level of Korean technology makes me proud to call myself Korean and motivates me to spread technology related news to more people around the world. The list of things I like (and like to do) is endless: Shopping, Gummy jellies, Lilies... and it goes on

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