and you need something to do on Buddhamas, Bongwon-sa Temple (near Yonsei University) is holding a performance of the Yeongsanjae. Do yourself a favor and check it out.
Oh, and on Sunday, the Korean royal family (the Jeonju Yi clan) will be conducting the Jongmyo Daeje ancestral rites ceremony at the Jongmyo Shrine. See also here.
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The Jongmyo event is well worth seeing. I wrote some about it here.
http://usinkorea.org/blog1/?p=54
It gathers a good crowd of Koreans and foreigners.
You don’t have to stay to check out the whole show. The procession of the king is a key scene to see.
Then, if you check out some of the action once the scholar-officials get to the doors and listen to some of the music and watch the dancers do their slow ritual movements when they perform (which happens several times over the course of these two all day events - there are two shrines - one for more important kings and one for not so important ones who both get honored in pretty much identical long ceremonies) —
—-you don’t really need to stick around for the whole thing. It is repetitive, but it is definately well worth checking out.
I also note in the blog item listed above how May is the month when local Confucian traditional schools you can find dotted around everywhere (except Seoul) will hold their spring ceremonies to honor the spirit of Confucius and other key Chinese and Korean Confucianists.
The Yulgok (Yi I) grave site complex just north of Paju will most likely have a ceremony at the private traditional confucian school at this time, and that is a nice park area to visit just to get out of the city.
Yup, those are good. And Robert’s right that the Yeongsan-je performance at An-san Bongwon-sa is quite worthwhile if you haven’t seen it before. I’m leading a tour-by-bus of four significant Buddhist temples today, for the Royal Asiatic Society, and that will be our final stop this evening. It departs from the Yongsan Post Office in about three hours from now, so you still have the chance to join
The history and artwork of those temples will be explained, along with all the Buddha’s Birthday and Yeongsan-je ceremonies we see.
I just hope to Buddhist Hell that it doesn’t rain on us…
Just back from that tour — it went well. About 80 mostly-non-Korean clients on two busses, who appreciated what we showed. Ol’ Daniel Adams, the K-Expat of all K-Expats, showed up to share the temple-guiding with me; we tag-teamed it. Hazy and humid, but no rain… Everyone seemed to leave satisfied — and exhausted, especially i.