I have seriously been waiting for Buddha's birthday to roll around since last May when Talton was here by himself and told me all about the amazing, colorful lanterns. I couldn't wait to see them for myself! Because Buddha's birthday is a holiday, not only did I write "T off work" on this date but right next to that I wrote "LANTERNS!" I'd say I was a little excited....and rightly so!
We explained to Connar that "the colorful balls hanging all around town are called lanterns and that they're decorations for Buddha's birthday. Buddha loves lanterns for his birthday just like you love balloons for your birthday." That explanation worked, because he remembered it days later. :)
We decided to go to one of my favorite places in Busan, Yonggungsa Temple, to admire the lanterns.
My first glimpse of the lanterns blanketing the temple grounds. Simply amazing.
Many of the lanterns had wishes hung from them that previous visitors to the temple wrote and attached.
C tossing a coin into the water...
Breathtaking.
checking out the alter underground
C inspecting the offerings left in front of the candles
You can see just how windy it was that night in this video.
Um, no sir. You are not going in the silent room where people are praying. Sorry Charlie.
Can you say stunning?!
Parker insisted on climbing every step on his own. When we got in the car, I said to Talton, "Do you realize that when we came here just 6 months ago to take our Christmas picture that Parker was only interested in being carried all over the temple grounds and today he was only interested in being Mr.Independent and doing it all himself?" So much changes so fast at this age.
Due to different reasons, we weren't able to see the lanterns all lit up at night like I'd been hoping to do, but I have to say that they are pretty magnificent during the day so I can't complain too much. I just feel so lucky that we were able to see these beautiful lanterns in person at a gorgeous Korean temple for Buddha's birthday. Now that's one for the bucket list!
