We Took in Some Lively Dancing On Buddha's Birthday Festival

The costumes and make up were over the top and the dances were upbeat. The large crowd clapped along to the music that was strangely western!?!

The last performance stood out for the both of us. Unlike the dances before it was done to the back drop of chanting and gonging. The men and women moved slowly, each movement precise and mindful. Their costumes were like something I've never seen before in Korea- long white robes that hung off their arms and dragged on the ground when they walked underneath a silk red shirt, red, blue, green, and yellow sashes dangled around their necks, thin, white gloves covered their hands, which carried large pink lotus flowers, their heads were adorned with a large bamboo weaved hat that acted as a blinder impeding their peripheral vision, it was decorated with stitchings of lotus flowers.

The lotus embodies and symbolizes Buddhism. It grows in the muddy swamps of Korea, yet it is fragrant, pure, clean, and clear. It represents rebirth and truth. The dance, I believe, symbolized these things.