Danoje Festival

This past weekend we went to the Danoje Festival in Gangeung which is a festival which celebrates the old Shamanist religion in Korea. There is not much of this religion practiced anymore, but it was once the main religion in Korea, it is a mix of ancestor and nature worship as far as I understand it. Much like Native American religions in the U.S.

They did lots of shows and presentations which showed how Korean religion and life used to be as well as having a huge market with lots of great deals and food. I particularly enjoyed the fresh squeezed watermelon juice. Sean got a little fairy angel figure cut into glass that would light up with different colors. He named her the Lady of the Night and we had her as our mascot for the rest of the trip.

This guy made these really intricate woven animals out of coconut fronds which were absolutely amazing. I had never seen anything like this before. I really wanted to buy one but they were too delicate, I knew I would destroy one if I tried to lug it all over the festival and back to Cheongju.

Every few hours or so there would be a big procession through the festival with the traditional music and outfits that Shamanists wear. Lots of drums, it was really interesting to watch.

Part of the parade had a traditional marriage procession which you can see here, they would put the bride in the little box litter thing. And the parents would act real sad that they were giving her away.

A traditional part of the festival is getting your hair washed in iris water to make it shiny and healthy. This is me getting my hair washed in iris water. So many Koreans came up to Constance and I when we did it. They loved that we were participating and not just watching. And it made my hair smell good and cooled me off on the hot day. It was quite relaxing actually. They pour the water from hollowed coconut shells.

Sean and Steve had a lot of fun with their balloons, doing the wonderful balloon dance you can see below and confusing Koreans all around them. And then they invented a game where they would hit people lightly on the head with the balloon and say "boop!" Most people they did it to thought it was really funny. I was surprised how cool they were with it. It was quite funny.

At the festival, there was wrestling and standing up swinging and a mask dance that we saw. The mask dance was interesting if quite misogynist. It was all about how the bride did not do what her husband (who is old enough to be her father) said and runs away with other men, so it ruins everything and he beats her until he thinks he killed her, but then she is not dead.

When we went out at night we had quite a fun time. We made friends with a bunch of Koreans we met at the bulgogi (beef) place.

The River

There is a river in one of the National Parks near here that we decided to go to for a weekend. We got there Saturday at noon and stayed overnight in a minbak. Minbaks are little rooms with bedding to sleep in, kinda halfway between a treehouse and motel room. The river is absolutely gorgeous. I had such a good time, here is me testing the waters. Look at that view!

When we first got to the park we had lunch at one of the little restaurants by the river. It was so beautiful because they had the table set up on a rock under the trees next to the river. Gorgeous setting for a lunch. So for all my friends at home, check out the picture with the Korean food. This is biminbap, a fairly common Korean meal. It is seaweed, seafood, fried egg, cabbage and a few other things all cooked up in a bowl. And like all Korean food, it comes with tons of side dishes: kimchi, soup, rice, cabbages with different sauces, etc. And you eat it all with slippery metal chopsticks. Yummy!

I went out to the river with Maggie, Niall and Willow, but we met up with a bunch of other people there from Cheongju and Seoul. Below, Maggie and Niall are posing for a picture at the restaurant.

I don't have any pictures from the night, because I left my camera at the minbak. But it would probably have been too dark to take pictures anyway. It is crazy how dark it gets when there is no ambient light. I actually laid down for a bit and ended up walking down to the beach from the minbak by myself. My flashlight broke less than 1/4 the way there. I had to go the rest of the way in the total darkness. I made it, but I managed to freak myself out quite a bit in the process. Normally I am not afraid of the dark, but it is soooo dark out there and I don't know the place and my imagination started to run away with me. We made a fire on the beach by the river and Mike played guitar and we sang and talked and had a great time. I went out on the rocks and looked at the stars. You can see them all out in the middle of nowhere like that. It was absolutely amazing. I get happy just thinking about it.
The next day we went back down to the river and spent the day laying out on the rocks, swimming, and generally having a great time. We look like colorful lichen all stretched out on the rocks.All of our Cheongju group went swimming in the river. The Seoul folks seemed a bit more uptight. But we had lots of fun, here is me, Willow, Norbert and Niall taking a dip in a deep area of the river that was perfect for swimming.

Norbert was majorly enjoying his time in the river, Niall was trying to get into the picture, but all we got was his hand. The sun was so bright, I think Norbert is the only one who did not get a sunburn, hehehe. He totally teased us about all our sunscreen. :)

There was a waterfall in the river, so I decided to try it out as a waterslide. Kinda scary at first, but a lot of fun once I went ahead and did it. Since the water runs so fast it had worn all the rocks smooth which was a perfect waterslide. Check me out going over the edge!

All in all, a fantastic weekend, I am so happy I went and I can't wait to go back. It really is the perfect summer retreat for around here. I want to go back soon. I love Korea!