Fire on a Mountain!!!

Today I went to the 2007 Jeongwol Daeboreum Fire Festival. In the words of the webiste it is a celebration of the "traditional harvesting of the grasses found in the local domestic farm animal pastures, which were annually set in fire each winter by the villagers as a way to exterminate harmful insects. This festival reveals Jeju Island 's unique traditions, while allowing for modern commercial sighting." After attending the festival, I'd say that it definitely revealed Jeju Island's unique traditions, while allowing for modern commercial sighting...


Jeehee and I arrived around 5:30pm, just in time for the sunset before the fire show.


About 50 people paraded through the crowd with torches until they reached the bottom of the hill and lit it on fire. We immediately felt the heat coming from the various burning heaps of grass and paper; it really was quite a show!

As the fires began to blaze, the loud speaker played music the kind of music you hear in a movie that foreshadows something bad, but lucky for us they kept the fire well contained and everyone made it out alive.


It was quite a show...fireworks, lazers, the full moon itself, and A LOT of people...they were expecting around 200,000, but I don't know how many actually showed up.



There was a huge ball of paper and grass in the middle of the hill, one of the first things to go up in flames.