Jinju Lantern Festival - final weekend

On Saturday, I decided to forgo the festival with a group of Cindy's friends, and instead went to game night at the pastor's house. We had some snacks, they made a loaf of bread in a bread maker and we played Catan (Brandon won, I came in second, but did have a minor victory when I used a monopoly card and got every single sheep in the entire game, so like 30 of them). We were able to watch the fireworks from their balcony and it was actually nice to see them from up high. We couldn't see the exploding birds, but I did get a good shot of some of the shape fireworks.

Heart and smiley face fireworks

I went Monday night and met up with Spencer and Christina. There were a few things on my list that I wanted to do and I really wanted to make sure I got some of them done before the last night. The first thing I wanted to do was the community lanterns. They set up some frames at the very beginning of the festival. Then anyone who wanted to could write a message or their name on a slip of something sort of like vinyl paper and stick it on the frame by smearing the back with rubber cement. At first, there was a money pot, then the zodiac signs and last they put up some trees and you could add leaves. I intended to get a green slip of paper for the monkey (my sign), but somehow got a yellow-green paper for what I think was a rat, but looked like a messed up Mickey.

Community monkey lantern

My paper on the foot of the mouse/rat

What do you think this is supposed to be? My paper is on the foot closest to the camera

After adding my message to the deranged Mickey, we went through the cartoon section again and took some more pictures. We also saw a short bit of a salsa ballroom dance act.

Spencer comparing forearms and eating spinach with Pop-eye and crew.

Me and some Smurfs.

Me and Po

Then we checked off the next thing on my list: the last water bridge. I had already done the two short ones that cross directly over the river. This bridge was a little longer, single wide, and went from the musical fountain to the castle. It was very nice because there weren't too many people on it and we were able to get some nice pictures and see a very floating lanterns that you can't see from the other side.

Little mermaid

Me on the bridge in front of a windmill for the Netherlands

Russian nesting dolls. They were all alone on the far side of the water bridge

Then we went into the back side of the castle where they had set up a bunch of lanterns depicting traditional Korean games. Some I could figure out. Others, not so much. One older guy came up and wanted to take pictures with Spencer, so that was kind of funny. After we walked through the castle, it was pretty late and we decided to call it a night.

Arm wrasslin'

Korean cockfighting

Korean seesaw or Neolddwigi

I have no idea what this "game" is supposed to be. It looks like a bunch of people trying to get on each other's shoulders. Well, it really looks like something inappropriate, but I'm guessing it's some form of wrestling. But they have a different, sumo-esque type of wrestling already, so I honestly have no idea what's happening. Makes for a good picture though.

Wednesday was the last night of the festival. I thought it would have been a bigger deal, but I guess because it was the middle of the week, nothing was really different. They did have a musical act playing in the background and apparently a comedian, but that didn't mean much to me.

US - lady Liberty

I met up with Illani after work and Cindy and Garreth joined us for a little while. We all had a kebab and then I rushed over to the hope lantern table to make sure I got one before they closed.

Garreth and the fire breathing dragon. It look us like 10 tries to get one with actual fire where you could also see his face. There was also a fire breathing peacock.

This time I had to make my own lantern by taping up the sides. But, I was also able to put my own lantern into the water this time around, so that was better.

Side 1 of my hope lantern. I had to tape all the pieces at the top and bottom together. It took like 5 minutes and lots of tape.

Side 2 of the lantern

This time, I went in the tiger's mouth, not the lion's mouth. We'll see which side comes true.

Putting the lantern into the water

After the hope lanterns, Cindy left and Illani and I got some cool souvenirs (they are Christmas presents for my siblings, otherwise I'd tell you). Then we walked around and chatted and took pictures. We left around midnight and I feel like I saw just about everything and did everything I wanted to do except for riding the fish boat.

Overall, I was impressed with the festival and I was sort of sad to see it go because it provided much entertainment during the week. Usually we just go to the same places for dinner or to get coffee and we were able to walk around and try some different things.