Buddha's Birthday

Monday was Buddha's birthday, a national holiday, so I enjoyed a day off from school. I decided that after 4 years, it was high time to check out the Buddhist temple and see how the holiday was celebrated.

I hopped on the bus to Bongseonsa, the largest temple in the area, and wedged myself in between the steps and the bus driver's seat. It was standing room only. Bus was definitely the way to go though, as the parking lot was packed and the bumper-to-bumper line of cars around its perimeter was barely creeping along.

The party started before I even reached the entrance. Vendors were making good business from behind their carts of cotton candy, kebab, corn on the cob, corn dogs, even boiled silk worms.

The middle pot is filled with boiled silk worm pupae.

Apparently, Buddha's birthday is a pretty big deal; I imagine the devout and non-devout alike show up to pay their respects, just as Christians turn out on Christmas and Easter Sundays. The mood was like a festival. There were vendors selling ice cream, puffed rice cake, and ddeokbokki. There were ajummeonis dressed in hanbok lined up on either side of the sidewalk to greet and bow to visitors. There were women selling bright red and yellow long-stem roses (for people to place in the temple, if I recall). And there was even a lawn exhibit of religious paintings available for purchase.

But the most glorious scene was inside the temple courtyard, right above my head. There were thousands of festive lotus lanterns, which people had paid up to hundreds of dollars for each, and which bore the wish of the buyer and helped them win favor with Buddha to make that wish come true. It was a sight to behold.

And at the far side of the courtyard, well away from the long line of hungry visitors waiting their turn for a free bowl of bibimbap, was a platform for a dozen or so monks dressed in clay-colored hanbok and next to them a table set with offerings of fruit for Buddha. A large group of women in fancy hanbok sat on the other side and looked like they might be a choir, although I didn't stay long enough to find out.

The only quiet place to be found was a lotus pond at the outskirts of the temple grounds. I assume the lack of food vendors there accounted for the crowd control. :-)

Less than an hour passed before I was ready to head home for lunch. I thought I'd probably get a seat on the bus this time, since it was headed away from the temple and I was one of the first people at the bus stop. But when the bus came, the grannies mobbed it and squeezed on ahead of me two at a time. I found it so funny, I decided to forget nabbing a seat and just get a picture instead. While the field trip was fun and I'm glad for the experience, I think once every four years is enough. ;-)