The floating lantern festival on the Nam River in Jinju city, Gyeongsangnam-do (South Gyeongsang Province) knows how best to bring out the beauty of the night. Some 60,000 lanterns, about half of them floating down the river and the rest dangling on the side of buildings, bridges and streets, will evoke exclamations of delight from tourists.

The tradition of floating lanterns first began as a way to appease the fallen souls during the Japanese invasion of Korea (1592-1598) in the late 16th century. The lanterns at the time were used as a military signal and other means of communications for soldiers outside the fortress. Lantern floating as a pastime began in 1949 it was in 2000 that the scale expanded to become one of the country’s biggest festivals. There are exhibitions of lanterns from around the, some very imaginative, opportunities to make, hang and float your own lanterns.