There's so much to see and do right now; if you're in Seoul, take a look at the links below and get out of the house.
At the top of the list we've got Buddha's Birthday. Highlights are the lotus lantern display at Bongunsa Temple (as seen above), and the lantern parade downtown on Sunday night. I've missed the parade before, but when someone showed me a video of it that showed a FIRE BREATHING DRAGON lantern, I knew I must be there this year.
This weekend is also a good time to head over to the Insadong Korean Art and Culture Festival to take in some of traditional Korean performances. Since you're in the area, you might as well head over to the Myeongdong Festival for music, people watching, and maybe even shopping too.
Finally, starting up on the 4th is the annual Hi Seoul Festival. What usually marks this event for me are the events down at City Hall, such as the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra's performance at 7:30pm on May 7th (wrapping up with fireworks at about 9 or 9:30pm). Others might want to head to Myeongdong after 9pm on May 6th for the all-night street dance party (it goes until 5am). But looking at the event guide, I was most intrigued by this:
On May 4th, the ‘Castle Lights’ event will restore, by brightly illuminating, the forgotten ancient castle of the 600-year-old city. The outsides of the ancient castle will be lit up, with the four large and four small gates using special lighting equipment to stage a splendid lighting show.
"Forgotten ancient castle" is right--I wasn't aware of it. From what I can gather this is also known as "Seoul Fortress", but I'm really quite confused. There are a couple of hikes scheduled around those lights, but looking at the itinerary for both of them I can't figure it out either (nor sign up, the website's in Korean for that, and as such probably requires a Korean ID number). If anyone has any ideas about where the best place is to observe this light show, please let me know.
This looks like something memorable. Do you think that there will be lots of "Seoul food" to feast on? Have fun!
Looking forward to some of those night shots. I hope you have better luck than I've had. Though, I haven't given up...in fact, I might go out to get some pictures of the lanterns some night this week.
How big is that tiger in the picture? Sometimes when I look at it, it seems huge, other times it seems like it might be toy-sized.
Now you've me looking at that tiger like it's small! Really, it's about 10ft. long.
The lantern festival was a challenge tonight. Though, since I shot a few hundred photos over a couple of lenses with changing lighting and camera settings--I know that I'll have a few keepers.