Traditional Lanterns at Gwanghwamun Square

Yeondeunghoe, Korea’s Buddhist lantern festival, takes place in the spring, usually in April or May. Historical records trace the tradition back to the Silla kingdom, including a reference from 866, the sixth year of King Gyeongmun’s reign. Korea designated it National Intangible Cultural Heritage No. 122, and UNESCO inscribed it on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

On the square, it felt like a public celebration. The Buddhist roots were visible in the lanterns and their stories. People of many backgrounds stopped to look, and the exhibition felt as much a part of spring in Seoul as anything else happening on the street.

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What the Lanterns Mean

The lantern is at the center of Yeondeunghoe. The word yeondeung means lighting a lantern. In the Buddhist tradition, the light also stands for clarity of mind.

The wish is to illuminate a mind darkened by craving and attachment and to make the world a little better. The occasion celebrates the Buddha’s birth. The light can carry a prayer, a hope or a source of comfort for the person who sets it out.

The lanterns in the square came in many sizes and shapes, but they all seemed to direct your gaze upward. That was the clearest expression of the festival I saw that evening.

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A Poor Woman’s Lantern

An old story tells of a poor woman who lit a small lamp as an offering along the path where the Buddha would pass. A wind rose late in the night. The other lamps went out, but hers kept burning. The story is known in Korea as Binjaildeung, the poor woman’s single lamp.

The story gives the smallest lantern a place of its own. Its meaning comes from the intention with which it is lit.

Gwanghwamun Square was filled with enormous lanterns in the shape of dragons, lotus flowers and Buddhist figures. The story of the little lamp made those much larger objects easier to read.

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The Traditional Lantern Exhibition at Gwanghwamun

From May 11 to 28, 2023, the traditional lantern exhibition turned Gwanghwamun Square into an outdoor gallery as part of Yeondeunghoe.

I could see the shapes and colors clearly before it was dark. At dusk, the lantern light and the fading daylight mingled until it was hard to say where one ended and the other began.

I came across the exhibition by chance. It could stop people who hadn’t set out to see it. Tourists took photographs, and commuters on their way home paused to look before moving on.

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Tradition in a Working Square

The experience was different from seeing an object behind museum glass. The lanterns were out in the middle of the city, alongside people going about their day.

Gwanghwamun is both a historic site and an everyday place. People cross it on their way to work, use it as a meeting point and gather there for demonstrations. During the exhibition, some of the people passing through found a reason to stay.

I noticed overseas visitors taking it in. Here was a way of encountering Korean tradition in the course of a walk through town, outside the usual visit to a palace or temple.

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How the Lanterns Look by Day

You might assume the lanterns are best seen at night. In daylight you can make out details that the light would otherwise overwhelm. Lotus flowers, animals and scenes from Buddhist stories look like sculptures set out in the square.

In the last daylight, you can see the colors of the buildings, the sky and the lanterns at once. A tradition with centuries behind it sits comfortably in the middle of present-day Seoul.

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A Sign of the Season

Yeondeunghoe began as a Buddhist observance. At Gwanghwamun it has also become part of the city’s calendar. Cherry blossoms signal spring, and these lanterns feel like the beginning of summer.

You can come across the exhibition on an ordinary walk and find yourself standing still for a little longer than you meant to.

The lights are up for a short time. What stayed with me was the feeling of standing in the square and looking at them.