Bonfire

The first full moon after Lunar New Year is an important holiday in much of East Asia. (The holiday is known as Yuánxiāojié 元宵節 in China.) Here in Korea it is called Jeongwol Daeboreum 정월 대보름. Every year the city of Gyeongju organizes  a celebration down by the river west of town. The major attraction is a huge bonfire meant to bring good luck in the coming year.

When we arrived in the late afternoon a lot of tents were set up. There was an incredibly long string of kites flying over the river.

I guess they wanted to get the kites in before nightfall, so they started reeling them in not long after we got there. It took a very long time.

Kite recalling

Since Tek is a boy in a bubble, when the volunteers saw him watching, they gave him two kites.

There was plenty of free tea and coffee. Volunteers carried around trays of tteok to give away.

Tek eating tteok. Although an American might be forgiven for imagining otherwise, there is no chocolate here.

There was a traditional Korean drum dance.

And this man played some lovely tunes on a flute, just before the mayor and other city officials were introduced to the crowd. Each one bowed deep and received applause.

This is the bonfire, or daljip 달집 'moon house'.

The banner reads 慶州市民萬事亨通(경주시민 만사형통) 'May all things succeed for the citizens of Gyeongju'

At the base of the bonfire you can see various affixed wishes and prayers, some written in Hangeul and some in Chinese characters. A number of ritual prayers were made.

Among the offerings were Asian pairs, a pig head with money in its mouth, and persimmons.

The bonfire was lit before dusk.

It was extremely dramatic. Initially there were huge billows of smoke. Sometimes people would jump the barrier in order to throw another prayer slip on the fire. They would be chased down by security personnel.

The fire took a long time to burn, eventually collapsing as the sky grew darker.

It was extremely hot, as you might imagine.

This 1-minute video shows the progression of the bonfire.

Having a small child, we left not long after sunset, when many revelers were arriving, having just gotten off work.