Daegu | Buddha’s Birthday Celebration & Lantern Festival

Buddha’s birthday is one of my most favorite times of year in Korea. Colorful lanterns begin to pop up everywhere, decorating bridges and adorning buildings. Rows and rows of glowing lanterns, seemingly suspended in mid-air, cover every Buddhist temple and courtyard. Over the course of two weeks the festivities in Daegu included lantern festivals, lantern releases, games, parties, and plenty of street food.

I could hear the sounds of laughter and faint chords of folk music from our apartment on the 17th floor as dusk approached on the first night of the lantern festival. Bursting with excitement, we quickly made our way downstairs and walked across the street to the trail along the river where the lantern festival had only just begun. From a distance the Sincheon river was aglow with hanging lanterns and illuminated floats while the smell of baked goods and roasted meats wafted through the air.

Spring had only just begun and everything was so bright, vivid and full of life.

We expected to see the same floats from last year’s lantern festival, but were surprised to discover the lanterns and decorations were completely different than we remembered. Even the way the festival was set up deviated slightly from the previous year. This year’s festival seemed bigger and more organized, with a lot more vendors and a lot more people.

I don’t know why, but I was really drawn to these two lanterns

After strolling along the lake and snapping a million photos of each individual lantern, we decided to grab a bite to eat. Food trucks lined up beside colorful tents while on the grass people pulled up plastic stools to tables covered with red and yellow striped table cloths. We walked back and forth along the rows of vendors, carefully weighing our options and coming up with a plan of attack. Everything looked and smelled so wonderful, we had to resist eating everything in sight.

Naturally we gravitated towards the familiar, to the vendors selling fried chicken, french fries, and fried food on a stick. Pyramids of corn dogs, hot dogs, odeng, chicken teriyaki, and other unidentified fried foods beckoned us to plunk down our money and stuff our faces. As tempted as we were, the memory of eating a sugar-coated corn dog from last year’s lantern festival was still fresh on our minds.

Our search continued.

Underneath the food tents, strings of lights alternating with hanging rolls of toilet paper napkins hovered over rows of picnic tables and plastic stools. At the front of the tent, facing towards the pedestrian walkway, women chefs bustled about, frying up pajeon, or seafood pancakes, stuffed squid, and coils of spicy sausage. Mounds of green onions, shredded carrots, and pickled vegetables stood out in the open air, on display, enticing all who walked by with their freshness. Huge vats of steaming broth were stirred, swirled, and then scooped into metal bowls and topped with a combination of chopped vegetables and herbs.

I know many foreigners shy away from eating street food, but I love watching the theatrics as seasoned chefs chop, grill, take orders, fry, dip, pour, shout, point, scrape and serve, all in the time span of a couple of minutes. I love being able to see all the unique ingredients transform into a simple, yet beautiful, dish. Unlike a restaurant kitchen that is closed off to the public, here I could visually tell the food looked fresh and that the cooks stations were meticulously cleaned. Street food can’t hide behind Michelin stars, online reviews, or celebrity chefs. If the food isn’t fresh, and if people aren’t happily slurping down every last drop, then they don’t make money.

We were so tempted to take a box of fried mandu (Korean dumplings) home with us 

I could eat fresh roasted chestnuts every day

One of the best smelling, most delectable looking food stalls we came across — roasted slabs of fatty pork crackling over a fiery spit. Very tempting indeed.

hot, buttery, fried squid

We finally settled on Korean food after seeing (and smelling) plate-sized seafood pajeon cooking at one of the pojangmachas. In addition to seafood pajeon, we also ordered blood sausage (sundae), spicy stuffed squid (ojingeo sundae) and a bowl of dongdongju to complement our meal.

Ojingeo sundae, a speciality of a province in Northeast Korea, is prepared by stuffing a fresh squid (ojingeo) with squid tentacles, vegetables, rice, and other meats. The composition of the stuffing itself can vary based on region or preference. Strangely enough, we thought the stuffing tasted very similar to cornbread turkey stuffing! Our ojingeo sundae was served with a few slices of sundae (think of it as a sort of Korean-style boudin sausage), a side of onion and topped with slivered carrots, green onions, and a healthy drizzle of spicy gochujang.

This type of street food meal paired perfectly with a plastic bowl brimming with a form of Korean rice wine called dongdongju. It’s my favorite Korean alcoholic beverage and tastes like a creamy, unfiltered, significantly lighter, sake. I could have easily sat outside all night like a true Korean drinking bowl after bowl of dongdongju while munching on Korean food. 

After our meal we continued walking around the festival taking in the sights and activities all around us. On the big stage we heard groups of singers performing traditional Korean folk music. Away from the main stage smaller stages featured humorous slapstick comedy acts that bordered on extremely bizarre.

Children ran freely in the grass blinking with lights and aglow with neon necklaces and bracelets. Couples walked slowly, arm in arm, or took selfies while lounging on a picnic blanket in a secluded spot by the water’s edge. In a small patch of open field a few people lit and released flying lanterns, sending their wishes off into the sky.

Meanwhile, we bought a cup of coffee from a food truck and backtracked through the line of vendors to find some dessert.

I ordered a chocolate nitogren-frozen cup of ice cream served with a syringe of what tasted like chocolate icing. We had fun watching the ice cream “smoke” as it was being made but the ice cream itself was just okay. To compensate for the lackluster ice cream we stopped by a few tents selling sweets and loaded up a white paper bag full of orange slice candy, watermelon candy, chewy strawberry wafers, sweet glutinous rice balls, and crunchy cookie swirls.

As we made our way back home, we continued stuffing our faces, stopping every now and then to take even more lantern photos.

We recognized the two large dragons from last year’s festival and still we took photos. Probably the exact same photos we took last year.

mandatory selfie

those tall buildings on the right = our apartment complex

There was a buzz in the air, a collective celebratory mood that felt both intoxicating and infectious. It all felt a bit like a springtime Christmas with the colored lanterns, ample food, jovial atmosphere, and the birthday celebration element. The festivities continued on for several days, culminating in a lantern releasing ceremony that we decided not to attend this year. For us, one night of glittering lights, fair food, and well wishes was magical enough.

Until next year…