15 Feb 2010, Posted by Matt in Art & Culture, Food & Drink, Seoul, Shopping, Video, 6 Comments

Insa-dong’s Tradition and Modernity

The Insa-dong neighborhood starts modestly, but as the main road continues its diagonal push toward Gwanghwamun Gate, the area’s charming tea shops, traditional restaurants and galleries are quickly revealed.

21 Apr 2009, Posted by Matt in Buddhist Temples, Festivals & Holidays, Food & Drink, Historic Korea, Seoul, 4 Comments

Seoul’s Lotus Lantern Festival 2009

The Lotus Lantern Festival (Photo courtesy of Festival organizers)

Can you tell it’s festival season in Korea?

Well, if this is news to you, starting on April 24, Korea’s Buddhist community will celebrate the birth of the Buddha with an extravagant, 11-day festival of light called the Lotus Lantern Festival (연등축제). Buddha’s birthday is celebrated on the eighth day of the fourth lunar month, which, this year falls on May 2nd.

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03 Dec 2008, Posted by Matt in Best of DK.com, Festivals & Holidays, Food & Drink, Hotels & Resorts, Jeolla, Nature, 13 Comments

Boseong’s Green Tea Fields

Tea was first cultivated in China over 2,500 years ago, but shortly thereafter it was introduced to Korea. Boseong is viewed by many as Korea’s tea growing capital.

14 Sep 2008, Posted by Matt in Festivals & Holidays, Food & Drink, Gyeongsang, Seoul, Transportation, 1 Comments

Chuseok: The Full Moon Festival

During Chuseok, my family conducted an early morning ancestral worship ritual. Afterwards, everyone enjoyed a feast!

The Korean calendar is a hybrid one. It’s a mix of the Gregorian calendar, which begins on January 1st, and a luni-solar calendar that begins on the first new moon of the year. The result is a mix of holidays- so, while Korean Independence Day always falls on August 15th, a traditional holiday like the harvest festival Chuseok (추석), occurs on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, which means sometime in September or early October.

This year, Chuseok, which is also known as Hangawi (한가위), falls on September 14th. The days before and after are combined to create one of Korea’s four main traditional holidays. This weekend, tens of millions of Koreans are returning to their ancestral hometowns to be among family and friends. Traditional rites include an early morning ancestral worship ritual and the tending of family tombs, called beolcho (벌초).

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