Buddha's Birthday: A Lantern Festival

South Korea celebrated Buddha's birthday at the end of May this year. A couple of friends and I headed up on a Friday afternoon to check out the lanterns at Bongeunsa Temple in Seoul.  

It was a beautiful day for a rooftop dinner.

I was impressed with the number of kimchi pots on this cart.

We arrived at the temple late afternoon so were able to see the lanterns both unlit and lit--both were neat to see! According to Buddhist beliefs, the lighting of a lotus-shaped lantern symbolizes a devotion of performing good deeds and brings light to the dark parts of the world that are filled with agony.

Entrance to the temple

These were some of my favorites but they didn't actually light up!

I got a kick out of the propeller being a ceiling fan (which they later turned on).

It really is an active temple with monks milling around.

So many Buddha's!

This temple actually allows for 'regular people' to sign up for programs to stay at the temple and live like monks for a period of time. Visitors, like myself, were able to peek in one room where the monk below was leading a chant/song with a room of participants.

Very neat to see in person! Also got to see visitors paying their respects throughout the grounds. The man kneeling was teaching his daughter the proper way for a while.

I don't know if the next lanterns are based on any characters/story but I thought they were pretty funny...seemed like real life cartoon characters to me!

This was my favorite and I almost missed it leaving the temple!