Sokcho Fire Water Festival.
Paul and I with Sokcho Man
A very lively (and Andrew Lloyd Webber inspired) dance troupe
Kelsey and Paul pull out the torches...
An authentic Fire Water ceremonial dance (I think...)
A view of Sokcho from Cheongcho LakeThis past weekend was the Fire Water festival in Sokcho. It seems that Korea is like Spain or Latin America--it's never too long before another festival! Traditionally, Sokcho hosts the Snow Festival in January, but I guess after last winter they were worried that they wouldn't have any actual snow again. Hence, the Fire Water festival (which sounds very Native American to me...). And comically, to me, there was plenty of snow this month (and it even snowed the day we attended the festival!).
Paul and I headed down to Expo and met up with Kelsey, Ruth E., Ara, and Ruth E.'s friend from Seoul. They have been plugging this festival for weeks, and Sokcho has been tattooed with advertisements and banners about it. They had set up a floating bridge on Cheongchoho with a traditional Korean ship at one end, facing a pair of water dragons. All around the bridge were floating metal baskets, which later on at dark held burning bundles of firewood. There were also traditional dragon boats all lit up passing through the lake. This festival started last Thursday at 6:00 with a set of fireworks, and I believe they set off fireworks every night (last night being the finale).
We weaved in and out of the tents to check things out. They had a ton of cool crafts and activities for kids (like make your own lamp, pottery, pinwheels, hats, puppets, teddy bears, etc.). They also had an inflatable stage with several performers, including (purportedly) belly dancing, Korean soloists, and that crazy ABBAish dancing troupe pictured above. You could even ride the gat-bae (Korean traditional ferry) or rent swan boats.
It was quite a cold day, but there was plenty interesting to check out (some Korean festivals can be kind of lame, so we were surprised and pleased that this one was so unique). At one point in the afternoon, they handed out torches to everyone and had us line up opposite each other near the lit archway facing the lake. When everyone had his torch, two groups of traditionally dressed folks came before each other and words were exchanged. I think that one group represented water and the other fire, but I cannot be too sure. We were just waiting with our torches and trying to dodge the Korean news cameras (which typically try to catch foreigners attending traditional Korean events). After their exchange, there was some kind of ceremonial dance, so I think the fire and water gods found favor with each other in some respect. The effect of the cold and snow, the colors of their costumes, and the lit torches against the backdrop of the lake and snowy mountains was quite dramatic and impressive. It was neat that we got to participate even in a small way. It felt very ancient and primal, but as with most things like this, we weren't entirely sure what was going on :)
Anyway, I've finally figured out how to make web albums (instead of trying to post all of my pictures on the blog, which was always so hard! Hard to choose!) So if you'd like to see more, check out my Picasa album here.
Paul and I headed down to Expo and met up with Kelsey, Ruth E., Ara, and Ruth E.'s friend from Seoul. They have been plugging this festival for weeks, and Sokcho has been tattooed with advertisements and banners about it. They had set up a floating bridge on Cheongchoho with a traditional Korean ship at one end, facing a pair of water dragons. All around the bridge were floating metal baskets, which later on at dark held burning bundles of firewood. There were also traditional dragon boats all lit up passing through the lake. This festival started last Thursday at 6:00 with a set of fireworks, and I believe they set off fireworks every night (last night being the finale).
We weaved in and out of the tents to check things out. They had a ton of cool crafts and activities for kids (like make your own lamp, pottery, pinwheels, hats, puppets, teddy bears, etc.). They also had an inflatable stage with several performers, including (purportedly) belly dancing, Korean soloists, and that crazy ABBAish dancing troupe pictured above. You could even ride the gat-bae (Korean traditional ferry) or rent swan boats.
It was quite a cold day, but there was plenty interesting to check out (some Korean festivals can be kind of lame, so we were surprised and pleased that this one was so unique). At one point in the afternoon, they handed out torches to everyone and had us line up opposite each other near the lit archway facing the lake. When everyone had his torch, two groups of traditionally dressed folks came before each other and words were exchanged. I think that one group represented water and the other fire, but I cannot be too sure. We were just waiting with our torches and trying to dodge the Korean news cameras (which typically try to catch foreigners attending traditional Korean events). After their exchange, there was some kind of ceremonial dance, so I think the fire and water gods found favor with each other in some respect. The effect of the cold and snow, the colors of their costumes, and the lit torches against the backdrop of the lake and snowy mountains was quite dramatic and impressive. It was neat that we got to participate even in a small way. It felt very ancient and primal, but as with most things like this, we weren't entirely sure what was going on :)
Anyway, I've finally figured out how to make web albums (instead of trying to post all of my pictures on the blog, which was always so hard! Hard to choose!) So if you'd like to see more, check out my Picasa album here.
posted by streetwise at 3:31 AM
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