Here Come the Lanterns

This Saturday kicks off the Annual Jinju Namgang Lantern Festival. Basically, what this is, is a WHOLE lot of huge, brilliant lighted floats shaped like dragons, drums, teletubbies (haha... seriously!), etc, that are set in the river.

When the festival kicks off on Saturday, it will last about 10 days. The lanterns will be lit at night, together with a ton of fireworks, awesome street food, lantern making, dancing, drinking, etc. Jinju is set to be packed this weekend; people stream in from all over Korea to celebrate the awesome defeat of Japan*.

The floats are already in the river!!! I got so excited when I saw them, looking like a giant fleet of gay pirate ships. There are hundreds of floats in the river, dozens at each bridge and even more waiting on the shores. I snapped a few pictures of the floats tied to the bridge nearest to my house. (I assure you.... it will look MUCH more impressive this weekend!)

Amazing fleet of mini-gay pirate ships on the river, stretching a very long way!

A HUGE dragon float.... Probably 40-50 feet long!

More floats waiting to be put in the river :)

*A little history on the festival: The tradition of floating lanterns on the Namgang in Jinju City dates back to the 1592 war between Korea and Japan. By October 1592, the Japanese had brutally taken pretty much every other city in Korea (including Seoul and Pyong-yang). They destroyed whatever was in their path and lopped off over 20,000 noses and ears of Korean people, taking them back to Japan to make "nose tombs" (seriously) and other trophies of war. Soon, however, the Japanese soldiers had run very low on supplies and needed to cross through Jinju to access the plentiful rice fields to the south. They met in battle at Jinju Castle in the cover of night. The people of Jinju flew lanterns high up in the sky as a military signal and communication tool with soldiers outside the fortress, while floating lanterns and torches along Namgang River. Over 30,000 Japanese soldiers died during this battle and they were forced to retreat. Yay Jinju!

Notice the orange covered walkway

All lanterns!!!

I can't wait to see them all lit up!! It will be such an amazing celebration. Pictures to SURELY come :)


In other news, today I got an apology via facebook from the guy who was mean to me and hit Francois a few weeks ago. The air is now clear!