JAG Journeys: April 2013

Day 4 of Quiring-family visit cont.

After leaving Gyeongbokgung Palace, the five of us wandered down a large street looking for a subway station to take us to N Seoul Tower, what we'd planned to be our next stop of the day.

Such a clean street

Ali snapping some pictures of the flowers as we walked down the scenic street

Not too far down the street we encountered a hubbub of activity as a group of brightly dressed Koreans were setting up an area of grass as a stage. Quite a group of people were already seated on the grass ready to watch whatever was about to happen. We hung around, interested to see what would take place. After a little while of waiting, and more people joining us on the grass, a free cultural show started. We were so surprised and delighted to have happened upon such a wonderful display of Korean culture. The program started with a women's drumming group, which did an amazing job! Next came a men's musical group, which did all kinds of very neat skills, all while playing on their instruments. Finally we watched a play, narrated in both Korean and English, depicting a traditional courtship and marriage through song and dance.

Getting ready to parade onto the stage

Almost show time

Women's drumming group

They sure knew how to use their whole bodies for their music!

Final bow

Here's what the performance looked and sounded like

Men's musical and skill group

Play the video below to watch a short snippet of the group's performance

They did all kinds of crazy tricks

One guy was very skilled at hat-tassel whipping

Impressive head-twirling

Quite the ornate headdress

A little girl from the audience tries her hand at keeping the disc spinning

The hand-off

She did very well

She tosses it up for another exchange

Musicians accompanying the play

Expressive narrator

Heroine of the play, the future bride

Suitor #1

Seduction dance?

He thinks he has won her heart

Victory dance

Starting to whisk her away

But wait. Suitor #2 enters!

He also wishes to win the maiden's heart and hand

Mum and Ali watch from the front row (a scary place to be -
Ali was twice invited to come up front and become a part of the production)

Take a look at this clip from the play

(^3:30 in the video is where Ali was almost chosen as Suitor #2's wife instead of the play's heroine!)

Love dance

Masked dancers

Wedding meal set out

Marriage ceremony with Suitor #2 about to take place

After the cultural show was over, we continued down the street, past the large statues of two Korean heros, King Sejong and Admiral Yi.

Looking down the street to the statues of King Sejong and Admiral Yi

Ali with her Korean hero, King Sejong, who invented the Korean alphabet, Hangul

The full Hangul alphabet (I believe five of these letters aren't used anymore)

Sundial, invented by King Sejong and his group of scientists

Another invention by King Sejong and his group of scientists (if anyone knows what it is, please let us know)

Rain gauge, invented by King Sejong and his group of scientists

Statue of Admiral Yi, a famous Korean naval hero

Because we had taken the time to watch the cultural show, we didn't have time to go to the N Seoul Tower, so we decided to do that the next day and just took the subway to the Han River where we ate some supper before catching an evening Han River cruise. The hour-long cruise took us a ways up the Han River and under the Banpo Bridge where we were able to watch part of the evening light show before we turned around and headed back to the dock. It was a splendid way to end our very diverse, but very, very interesting day. We were so happy we'd stumbled upon the outdoor cultural show! It turned out to be the best way to show Ali's parents and brother some of the wonderful traditional heritage of Korean culture.