Yeondeunghoe (

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

: 연등회;

Hanja Hanja (Hangul: ; Hanja: , ), alternatively known as Hancha, are Chinese characters () used in the writing of Korean. Hanja was used as early as the Gojoseon period, the first ever Korean kingdom. (, ) refers to Sino-Korean vocabulary, wh ...

: 燃燈會; Korean pronunciation: ʌndɯ̽ŋɦø is a lantern-lighting festival in Korea celebrating the

Buddha's Birthday Buddha's Birthday (also known as Buddha Jayanti, also known as his day of enlightenment – Buddha Purnima, Buddha Pournami) is a Buddhist festival that is celebrated in most of East Asia and South Asia commemorating the birth of the Gautama ...

. The date of the celebration is marked on the Chinese Lunar calendar as the eighth day of the fourth lunar month. ,8The English translation of the name of the festival is written as Yeondeunghoe, Yeon Deung Hoe, or Yeondeung Hoe. Likewise, the exact English translation of the words, “Yeon” “Deung” “Hoe” are varied with suggested meanings as, “Lotus Lantern Festival” and “lighting a lantern.” � Origins With a 1,200 year history, records reference the event at Hwangnyongsa Temple, located in Gyeongju, in 866 during the Silla Dynasty (57 B.C. – 935 A.D.). ,8The beginning of the festival is marked with the ritual bathing in water of a sculpture of the Buddha as a baby. A member of clergy uses a ritual ladle to spoon water over the head and shoulders of the image of Buddha. Lanterns Displayed at Buddhist temples, private homes and parades, lanterns come in all shapes and sizes. Popular lantern subjects include drums, cranes, fish, and flowers. As recent as 2014, lantern creations include historical figures like King Sejong and the creation of Hangul script, cartoon characters, detailed figures in traditional Korean dress, phoenixes, dragons, tigers, and a Korean style ship with moving masts. The Buddhist roots of the Lotus Lantern Festival is in the most prolific lantern design, the lotus flower. In Buddhism, the lotus is associated with dignity, the sublime, and the awakening of the devotee’s true nature. Lotus flower lantern workshops are common sights across the communities that celebrate the festival not only in South Korea, but around the world. Custom designed lanterns made for Yeondeunghoe have an underlying frame covered with a paper sheathing and internal lights. A lantern frame is made of split bamboo or aluminum armature wire. Each piece of the armature is individually shaped to fit the form and secured together with paper tape or thin wire. The three dimensional wire shape is covered in Hanji paper, a traditional Korean paper handmade from mulberry tree bark. The properties of Hanji, with its overlapping plant fibers, add to its strength and durability of a material for use on a lantern. Individual Hanji paper pieces are cut to fit over the pattern of frame openings and secured in place with glue. 0,11,13 Simple lotus lanterns, made in community workshops and family homes, are made with commercially manufactured white spherical lanterns, tissue paper rectangles and glue. The manufactured tissue paper rectangles are white on one half and a dyed color on the other. Tissue paper petals are twisted by hand into a point and held in place with a little bit of glue, attached in rows until the base lantern is covered. Traditionally candles were used to illuminate the lanterns, but LED lights with battery packets are considered safer and easy to use. 1,12 Recognition Yeondeunghoe is inscribed in

UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List UNESCO established its Lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage with the aim of ensuring better protection of important intangible cultural heritages worldwide and the awareness of their significance.Compare: This list is published by the Intergove ...

from 2020 and enlisted as South Korean Intangible Cultural Property from 2011. Per the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Committee, religious events are normally excluded from consideration. However upon reflection, the Committee’s decision to include the festival hinged on its inclusivity and cultural diversity, noting the removal of social boundaries between the attendees during the celebration. 4People come together to enjoy the thousands of glowing lanterns and to wish for happiness for themselves and others. Modern Year Celebrations In 2005 to celebrate 40th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between two countries, lanterns from Japanese festivals in three regions of

Akita is a Japanese name and may refer to: Places * 8182 Akita, a main-belt asteroid * Akita Castle, a Nara period fortified settlement in Akita, Japan * Akita Domain, also known as Kubota Domain, feudal domain in Edo period Japan * Akita, Kumamoto ...

Aomori is the capital city of Aomori Prefecture, in the Tōhoku region of Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 278,964 in 136,457 households, and a population density of 340 people per square kilometer spread over the city's total area of ...

and Yamagata joined other Korean lanterns at Yeondeunghoe. Yeondeunghoe is celebrated across the entirety of South Korea every year but one in

Jongno District Bosingak bell pavilion Jongno District () is a district () in central Seoul, South Korea. It takes its name from a major local street, Jongno, which means "Bell Road". Characteristics Jongno District has been the center of the city for 600 yea ...

of Seoul Capital where

Jogyesa Jogyesa (Jogye Temple) is the chief temple of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism. The building dates back to the late 14th century and became the order's chief temple in 1936. It thus plays a leading role in the current state of Seon Buddhism in ...

, the chief temple of the biggest Korean Buddhist

Jogye Order The Jogye Order, officially the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism (대한불교조계종, 大韓佛敎曹溪宗), is the representative order of traditional Korean Buddhism with roots that date back 1200 years to the Later Silla National Master D ...

resides, is best known. In 2020, Yeondeunghoe was cancelled due to the

Coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

despite revising its plans and reducing its participants. This was the fourth time in modern Korean history since 1960 that Yeondeunghoe in Jongro was cancelled. The first and the third were due to the martial law proclaimed during two of the major democratic movements in the country,

April Revolution The April Revolution ( ko, 4.19 혁명), also called the April 19 Revolution or April 19 Movement, were mass protests in South Korea against President Syngman Rhee and the First Republic from April 11 to 26, 1960 which led to Rhee's resigna ...

in 1961 and

Seoul Spring The Seoul Spring (Korean:서울의 봄) was a period of democratization in South Korea from 26 October 1979 to 17 May 1980. This expression was derived from the Prague Spring of Czechoslovakia in 1968. The assassination of president Park Chung-He ...

in 1980. The second was in 1970 when the Seoul City government refused to grant the permit for street usage citing expected traffic jams.

Gallery

Lotus Lantern Festival 2019 14.jpg 연등회.jpg Buddhist Monks in Orange, Lotus Lantern Festival, Seoul.jpg Seoul -Lotus -Lantern -Festival -燃燈祝祭.jpg KOCIS Korea YeonDeungHoe 20130511 05 (8733836165).jpg KOCIS Korea YeonDeungHoe 20130511 29 (8733830397).jpg KOCIS Korea YeonDeungHoe 20130511 02 (8733836547).jpg KOCIS Korea YeonDeungHoe 20130511 23 (8733833373).jpg KOCIS Korea YeonDeungHoe 20130511 14 (8733834525).jpg KOCIS Korea YeonDeungHoe 20130511 16 (8734952802).jpg KOCIS Korea YeonDeungHoe 20130511 19 (8734952526).jpg KOCIS Korea YeonDeungHoe 20130511 04 (8733836043).jpg KOCIS Korea YeonDeungHoe 20130511 15 (8733834537).jpg KOCIS Korea YeonDeungHoe 20130511 12 (8734953324).jpg KOCIS Korea YeonDeungHoe 20130511 09 (8733834859).jpg KOCIS Korea YeonDeungHoe 20130511 06 (8733835557).jpg KOCIS Korea YeonDeungHoe 20130511 28 (8733831541).jpg KOCIS Korea YeonDeungHoe 20130511 24 (8734951724).jpg KOCIS Korea YeonDeungHoe 20130511 01 (8734955464).jpg KOCIS Korea YeonDeungHoe 20130511 03 (8733836277).jpg KOCIS Korea YeonDeungHoe 20130511 27 (8734950922).jpg KOCIS Korea YeonDeungHoe 20130511 26 (8734949132).jpg KOCIS Korea YeonDeungHoe 20130511 07 (8733835173).jpg

References

6. Faller, D.T. (2022, June 3). ''Magazine: Schauplatz] Yeon Deung Hoe.'' uropean Chamber of Commerce in Korea. [Magazine: SchauplatzYeon Deung Hoe - European Chamber of Commerce in Korea (ecck.or.kr) 7. Yeon Deung Hoe Preservation Committee. (2020, December 22). ''Korea’s ‘YeonDeungHoe’ (Lantern Lighting Festival) Listed As UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.'' CISION PR Newswire. Korea's 'YeonDeungHoe' (Lantern Lighting Festival) Listed As UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (prnewswire.com) 8. UNESCO. (2020) ''Yeondeunghoe, lantern lighting festival in the Republic of Korea. UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage.'' Yeondeunghoe, lantern lighting festival in the Republic of Korea - intangible heritage - Culture Sector - UNESCO 9. Associated Press. (2014, November 7). ''200,000 colourful lanterns on display at festival in Seoul''. https://discovery-ebsco-com.ezproxy.umgc.edu/linkprocessor/plink?id=e089ecc4-8951-3a99-b2dc-de7c5d42f3a5 10. 강선사TV. (2020, November 9). ''The 21^st Traditional Lantern Seminar (Victory Crafts)''

ideo IDEO () is a design and consulting firm with offices in the U.S., England, Germany, Japan, and China. It was founded in Palo Alto, California, in 1991. The company's 700 staff uses a design thinking approach to design products, services, enviro ...

YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHc0tSQ734U 11. UNESCO. (2020, December 16). ''Yeondeunghoe, lantern lighting festival in the Republic of Korea''

YouTube. https://youtu.be/A-wywPUMX0M 12. Dhammadharini Monastery. (2021, May 24). ''Vesak 2021 Lantern Making''

YouTube. Vesak 2021 Lantern Making - YouTube 13. Great Big Story. (2017, August 2). ''One Artist’s Audacious Pursuit of Traditional Korean Hanji''

YouTube. https://youtu.be/fDM6E784Bxs 14. Molina, E. Jihae, L. (2020, December 17). ''Lotus Lantern Festival named UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage.'' Korea.net. https://www.korea.net/NewsFocus/Culture/view?articleId=192891{{UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity/APA Important Intangible Cultural Properties of South Korea Buddhist festivals in Korea Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity Korean traditions Korean culture

Gallery

See also

References