The Seoul Lantern Festival takes place each year in November along the Cheonggyecheon Stream. In 2018, the festival was celebrating the 10th anniversary. The festival took place over the course of 17 days and each year it centers around a specific theme. This year’s theme was “Seoul Dream, Flowing Light” (whatever that means!).

The event itself is free, but for a small fee you can decorate your very own lantern and release it into the water where it can float a short distance down the stream until it gets caught in the massive lantern ‘traffic jam’ with the other hundreds of personalized lanterns. I’m no fool, I skipped this and opted to spend my extra cash at one of the many street food vendors where I enjoyed a bottle of soju and some grilled chicken on a stick!

The lanterns themselves really varied in size and subject matter, but all were made of brightly and intricately painted paper glued over wire frameworks—quite impressive! If you find yourself near Seoul during this time of year, I recommend checking it out, unless you hate crowds, then just stay home and look at these pictures instead!