Jindo Sea Parting Festival

Many of you have probably heard already that there was a very tragic ferry accident here in Korea recently. I have received several messages from people asking if I am okay, and I am, thank you for your thoughts and concern. Honestly this accident is heartbreaking for everyone in Korea. Something that I have learned about Korean culture though this is their solidarity as a country. Everyone - directly affected or not - comes together to mourn. All entertainment events (concerts, performances), field trips etc. have been cancelled out of respect to those who have lost their lives. I even read today that even movie theatre attendance has dropped by 40%. While some may say that this is a band-aid solution to prevent future tragedies, this is one country's way of dealing with loss and I am in no place to judge that. This has been in the news non-stop and is broadcast on almost every TV channel. How the situation was handled makes me feel angry and being in a country where something devastating has happened makes the reality of it so much more real. I just hope that everyone will be able to find peace. It's also crazy to think that I myself was on a ferry only a few short months ago going to Jeju myself, although not the same ferry. 

It's hard to transition from discussing the accident to my adventures over the past month, so I hope sharing my times of joy and fun doesn't come across as insensitive. 

It's been awhile since I last posted! In my last post I mentioned going away the upcoming weekend (end of March) which I did. My friend Mel (from the UK) and I went to the Sea Parting Festival in Jindo. We were getting picked up early Saturday morning, so we had a sleepover at my place on Friday night. This lead to us staying up late and booking the first flights for our trip to Malaysia in July! 

Saturday morning, Mel and I got onto the WINK (When In Korea - organizer) bus and we all headed to Jindo. Once we arrived we grabbed lunch and then headed to a traditional performance. Unfortunately there were so many people there that most people could not get a seat to enjoy the performance. But afterwards, many of the performers came outside and we all danced together as they drummed. It was so amazing to be a part of this huge happy crowd of people. Mel and  I were grabbed by the hands by another person and we started a circle chain of dancing and jumping around the drummers. These are a few photos taken from the group Adventure Korea - can you spot me in the second one?

From here, we went to a dog show. Jindo is famous for their Jindo dogs, both smart and beautiful. I'm not sure how I feel about the dog show as they had the dogs jumping through multiple rings of fire which just seems cruel. What was funny though is that some of the dogs just wouldn't do the trick if they didn't want to.

After this, we were dropped off at the hostel. We shared a room with our friend Martin, my friend Emmalee, her friend Tina and about five other people. Most people when down to the festival area for the live stage performance, but as I had started to get a cold the previous Thursday, I wasn't feeling so great and decided to stay in. Besides, we were getting up for the sea parting at 4am anyways - and it came quickly!

So this is a festival that occurs every year and I believe it is based on the cycle of the moon and the tide? But in this specific area, the sea parts so that you can walk to what would normally be an island in the sea. In previous years the parting doesn't happen until the afternoon, but this year it was super early in the morning. So at 4am we got up, dressed and headed down to the sea. We were warned in advance that the water may not part fully so we were prepared with thigh high rubber boots! We were also given torches to help us see when walking in the water.

Mel, Martin and I walking down to the festival

Martin and I with our torches and the mass of people entering the water behind us. 

Thankfully for the boots, we couldn't feel how cold the water was. For others, who decided to do the walk without shoes or in sandals, were quite cold. We joined the masses of people walking across the sea until the water came up to an inch below our boots. At this point, the lady on the microphone was telling everyone to come back out of the water because the tide was coming back in quickly. It was a bit unfortunate to not be able to do the walk completely but it was still a fun, unforgettable experience. Here is a shot of the three of us when we got out:

 You can see the boots more clearly in this photo. 

As we were getting out of the water, there was a fireworks show to top things off. Mel has a bit of a fear of fireworks, but she did well! We returned our torches after several more pictures then headed back to bed! Here is a photo from previous years to get a better idea of what we were doing:

After getting some more sleep we enjoyed the rest of the festival. There were a lot of food stands, you could try playing a traditional Korean drum, we wrote wishes, and we painted. 

Enjoying some Turkish ice cream

This is where we were standing in the rocks and sand just earlier that morning. The water rose high and quickly.

Putting up my banner of my wish

Mel and Martin trying out the drums. 

Jindo!

Painting on a banner - while I was doing this, a Korean man from some media source came up and took several shots of me painting. 

Martin and a Jindo puppy.

There was also a parade scheduled. Before the parade started, I found my friend Robin, and Mel and I were talking to him. Out of nowhere, we had three men with cameras approach and they started to take pictures of us chatting. We though they wanted a posed photo, but he said no and told us to put on our sunglasses and keep talking to one another. We were photographed for a good ten minutes by several people, it was a very odd experience. 

Here are a few photos from the parade, which was a community effort. We were even invited to take part!

 Probably the most memorable part of the parade - older Korean man dancing and behind him is a man dressed as Moses for the sea parting.

We represented the water.

Group shot of some of us who went on the WINK trip.

Finally, there was a performance on the stage and then they released a bunch of balloons that we were supposed to wish on. Afterwards it was back on the bus heading to home to Seoul.

<3