In celebration of the coming of the 'enlightened one,' Buddha's birthday is feted with thousands of lanterns. Although I don't embrace the spiritual dimensions of the occasion, it was still beautiful and spectacular to witness all the lanterns begin to glow at dusk. Festivals and lantern parades are held in various locations in Korea (and all over the world), and apparently, people purchase lanterns in exchange for making wishes. I had the opportunity to hike to a Buddhist temple in the mountains last weekend where the wish making was explained to me. Some people purchase lanterns that are hung in various places. Some people buy temple roof tiles and write their wishes on these. Others buy pink, lotus-shaped lanterns that hang inside the temple with wishes suspended on thousands of white papers. As I couldn't read them, I asked one of the Korean teachers if most of the wishes were about health or finances. She said no. Most of them were requests for good SAT scores!
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