Jinju’s Namgang Lantern Festival in the Winter of 2021

Each autumn, Jinju in South Gyeongsang Province usually holds two events around the same time: the Gaecheon Arts Festival and the Jinju Namgang Lantern Festival. In 2021, pandemic conditions moved the lantern festival from its usual October dates into December.

A winter lantern festival took some getting used to. I associate floating lanterns with a warm evening and a walk along the river, but the cold had already set in. I hadn’t arranged the visit around the festival. I’d gone to see Jinjuseong Fortress and found the lanterns there by chance.

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Where the Lantern Festival Begins

The festival traces its origins to the first siege of Jinjuseong in 1592, during the Japanese invasions of Korea known as the Imjin War. A much smaller force under General Kim Si-min held off a Japanese army in the battle remembered as the Great Victory of Jinju.

According to accounts associated with the festival, people outside the fortress floated lights on the Namgang to signal to one another. The lights are also said to have been used to interfere with attempts to cross the river.

The second siege in 1593 killed many soldiers and civilians. The festival connects the floating lanterns to the remembrance that followed and to the wishes people still send out with them. That history gives the event a quieter feeling than the size of the displays might suggest.

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A Festival Held in December

The 2021 Jinju Namgang Lantern Festival ran from December 4 through 31. The river wind was cold, but I was able to walk around the fortress at a slow pace without much of a crowd.

The fortress was free to enter during the event. At the time, it normally charged ₩2,000 for an adult ticket. Pandemic restrictions affected some parts of the program.

The grounds opened out once I was through the gate. Walls, pavilions and the river were all in view, and there was space to walk among them. The lanterns were off in the daylight, which made it easier to see their shapes. Some represented historical scenes, and others were installed along the river as well as inside the walls.

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Seeing the Lanterns by Day

The lanterns are meant to be seen after dark. I couldn’t stay that late and left with the feeling that I’d only seen one part of the festival.

In daylight they looked like installations. You could make out how they were built and what the makers wanted them to depict. The ones on the water looked as though they were waiting for the rest of the scene to arrive.

I imagined the lights reflected in the Namgang and the wall dark behind them. It gave me a reason to want to see the place again. Sometimes the part of a trip you missed stays in the memory almost as long as the part you saw.

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A Walk Around the Fortress

Even without the lanterns, Jinjuseong is a good place to walk. From the wall you can look down on the Namgang. It’s a historic site with enough open space to feel like a park.

I could imagine coming at dusk, when the wall, the river and the city would all be visible at once. During the festival, the same ground holds a historic site by day and a different scene after dark.

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Next Time, After Dark

I hadn’t gone to Jinju to see the festival. Coming across it made the visit more memorable. Missing the night display left something to come back for.

There’s more to the lanterns than the view from the riverbank. They carry a memory of what happened here in wartime, which changes the feeling of walking past them, even when they’re off.