Lesson 46

No Korean parade is complete without mini-skirts.

Today was day four of the 46th Suwon Hwaseong Cultural Festival. Kristen, Kelsey, Touyen, and I made sure to wake up early and get to Paldalmun before noon to avoid traffic - the main street would be closed for the 2:00 parade.

We met up with Young and her church friend, Sora, and Erica (from English Group) at Paldalmun, then walked to the Plaza where there was a big stage for musical performances, a few craft tents, dozens of dining tents, and a rather non-traditional young man in a skirt.

Something you do not see every day in Korea.

We wanted a reasonably priced lunch, so we opted for marinated chicken chunks on a stick and were followed around by the event photographers who kept trying to snap photos of us chowing down. I was eating with my hand over my mouth and one photographer stood directly in front of me, camera at the ready, repeatedly telling me to move my hand. After being harassed for a solid two minutes, I shook my head, made an X with my arms, and briskly walked in the opposite direction to eat my chicken in peace.

Once we successfully escaped the paparazzi, we headed to an exhibit of traditional Korean hairstyles from the Joseon Dynasty (17th-18th centuries). Erica and I took photos of nearly everything and read all of the information plaques. (P.S. My camera is having trouble focusing.) I am very glad that the significance of hairstyle has fallen out of fashion (for the most part), though some of these hairdos were quite nifty.

Braid worn by single women. Not so bad.

When you get married, you wear this style. On the downside, hats don't fit you like they used to. On the upside, you don't have to buy earmuffs.

Men wore this dashing topknot when they got married. They also wore special horsehair hats to protect said topknot.

It was probably difficult to fit through doorways with this Hwankye hairstyle. Worn by wealthy married women during the Period of the Three Kingdoms, this style consisted of a fixed oval shape that was kept in place by binyo (ornamental hairpin).

If this hat became popular again, would you wear it? I sure as hell would.

After the hair exhibit Young suggested we head back to Paldalmun to find a good spot to sit and watch the parade. We were an hour early, but we soon discovered that the spots fill up fast. We parked ourselves at a cafe-like table that had been set up for the event, conveniently located at the south entrance to the traffic circle surrounding Paldalmun.

We took turns walking to the other side of Paldalmun to watch the various performances (while the rest of the group guarded our table and chairs). Above is a dance performance in the middle of the street to entertain the parade watchers. There was also a dog show and Korean belly dancing, which I'm upset that I missed... because I've never heard of it in my life.

They got there just before the parade started.

And finally the parade began! Since it's officially called the Reenactment of King Jeongjo the Great's Royal Tomb Visitation Procession and Citizens' Parade, I assumed there would be a lot of hanbok-wearing, and loud Korean music-playing. I was only half correct. The other half had high heels, marching bands, and the smallest skirts I've ever seen. On very colorful floats.

Manjang Flags

Suwon's Drum Sound

The skirt on the left is actually shorter than it looks because the waistline is so high. Any shorter and I might have learned where babies come from. On every float featuring live musicians (of which there were about ten), there were three or four young women rocking out in itsy bitsy skirts.

More short skirts. I guarantee that if your high school marching band looked like this, you would definitely join. They were really good too.

The living statue on the IBK (Industrial Bank of Korea) float unfroze for us, smiled, and flashed the Victory sign shortly after this photo.

The only girls with normal-length skirts were on this float playing the drums. These guys were pretty cool!

There were several clown on stilts wandering around. I think one of the clowns was drunk (or just nuts) and I swear he was going to fall off those stilts at some point. He kept stumbling into the crowd and giving people high-fives, pretending to push the floats, and staggering about.

H.Q. of the ROK Marine Corps. They did a neat little gun-spinning routine for us.

And here we randomly have movie characters in clothing you would normally only see during Halloween at an American college.

I have no idea who these people are or what they do (besides bang on a drum), but their hats were awesome.

This is the start of the Royal Tomb Procession. There were tons of these guys. So many that they actually dressed up a bunch of women, drew a Fu Manchu on them, and sent them out into the parade.

They even threw a few foreigners into the mix.

This guy is awesome.

More flags and traditional Korean outfits.

Ladies in waiting?

I assume this would have been the queen or someone important.

I saw this group practicing their performance in front of Suwon Station a few days ago. They have hats with a stick and a ribbon attached to it, so as they march and play their instruments they swing their heads around and the ribbons dance along behind them.

Not pictured: the Tae Kwon Do artists, the hip-hop breakdancers, Kung Fu Panda, the Foreign Ambassador of Korea, a squadron of cops on motorcycles, guys on pogo stilts, and people on rollerblades dressed up as stereotypes of different countries (I'm talking Aladdin pants and turban, lederhosen, Viking hat, Native American headdresses... everything).

When the parade finished, a huge group of people swarmed Paldalmun to get a good look and walk around on the tower - this week is the only time during the year that people are allowed to walk on it). Above: me and Sora (who offered to teach me Korean!) Her English is practically non-existent, just like my Korean, so I think this will go well.