Jindo Sea Parting Festival

Korea is home to a plethora of unique and exciting festivals that I didn't learn about until coming here. One of which, we traveled nearly 5 hours in a bus to the other side of the country to experience on Saturday: the Jindo Sea Parting Festival. Jindo is an island in the southwest corner of Korea, connected to the mainland by some bridges. It is surrounded by many other smaller islands, one of which famously forms a "land bridge" each day, just as the tide changes to it lowest point. Although this formation happens twice a day, all year long, the local residents host a festival once a year to celebrate the natural phenomenon and the ancient story that accompanies it.

In order to experience this festival we had heard many good things about, we booked a tour/trip through EnjoyKorea. This 2-day trip also included lodging and transportation to a festival in Busan that was happening the following day. My friends and I had done a ski trip through this company in December that worked out great, and we loved this one so much that we've already booked another festival trip with them in July.

Our packed day began when we arrived to the festival area around 12:30. We were starving from the long bus ride, but were immediately surrounded by tons of similar looking shops and outdoor restaurants full of all of our favorite Korean foods. So after a lunch of pork, pajeon, and some (accidentally ordered) chicken feet, we headed to walking through the rest of the festival to eat other carnival foods and see what else Jindo had to offer.

I couldn't remember the last time I'd had cotten candy, and they were selling these giant balls of it for only 3,000 won! So of course, I decided to split one with two of my friends.

Here's a little map to show the area of Jindo we were on and where the land bridge forms to connect to the smaller outlying island.

There were tons of Koreans, both young and old, in ceremonial dress marching or parading through the festival grounds. Music was constantly playing and there were lots of interesting things to see.

This is the statue of Grandma Bbong and the tiger. Below you can see the 'official' legend of the Sea Parting Miracle, but I had also heard a slightly different story from some Korean friends before coming to Jindo. That story went similar from the one below, except that it was a younger woman that had been left behind. One day, she was running to escape a tiger and prayed to the sea god to save her. He made the sea bridge for her to run across to safety.

The island is also famous for this breed of dog: the Korean Jindo dog. It is an originally bred hunting dog from the island, and there were many around to see as well as a show with some of the grown dogs and their trainers.

There was even an area were you could hold and pet some Jindo puppies. While the trainer/breeder told people lots of information about them. (It was all in Korean though)

At another area of the festival, a long banner was stretched out and paint was provided to write your name or greeting or leave a mark of some kind.

Near the location where the bridge would form, there was a giant stage set up. Here there were all sorts of performances going on all day. Some of the ones I caught parts of included: Korean fan dancers, some children playing the Korean drum, and a rifle squad of Korean soldiers.

In the large building built across from the bridge to provide a better view of the crossing was a little photo gallery consisting of some great photos that show the festival from previous years. This one in particular had a clear view of the entire land bridge (a photo I was unable to get myself).

Around 5 o'clock, the water level had fallen enough to begin to cross, and so the crowd started to move out across the sea. A roll of blue fabric started at the statue of Grandma Bbong and was unrolled and carried by everyone to the other side of the bridge to the smaller island.

 Everyone got to buy these yellow, green or orange, plastic boots to keep from getting wet and muddy. They cost about 8,000 won, but we figured it'd be better to have them then to get soaked and dirty.

In addition to the roll of blue fabric, the festival also provided these bamboo-stick flags to carry across the sea bridge. They were continuously traded off from person to person as they took turns carrying them.

At the start of the bridge, people were also passing out balloons to the participants. Once the front of the procession reached the other island, blasts of color went off from a nearby boat, and everyone released their balloons.

This environment-polluting "tradition" has happened at both "big" Korean festivals I've been to now, and I can't help but wonder why I don't see balloon remains everywhere I go.

Throughout the entire day, there were these gliders flying around the skies above the water and the crowds. When the color blasts when off and everyone released the balloons, they came swooping in and released colors of their own.

About halfway across, we were almost able to round up everyone from the group for a picture. We were just missing a couple, but we had 5 extra people from a different group join as well.

As the crowd dispersed from the bridge, the Koreans that lingered began to collect all sorts of sea life to be cooked and eaten or sold to then be cooked and eaten. We began to join them as well, thinking we could try to cook up some muscles ourselves that night at our hotel, but we ended up leaving them behind.

The plethora of sea life found in mud consisted mainly of clams and muscles, but also of small crabs, starfish and small octopuses.

As the sun began to set and the tide began to rise again, we were ushered back to the main island of Jindo by the whistles of police on the boats that patrolled the festival. With the crowd gone, I was able to take one last picture from the statue of the bridge connecting the two islands. Though it was already starting to get dark and foggy, you can still make out then entire thing.