Summer is a magical time to visit Korea, with numerous festivals and traditional celebrations taking place across the country that you can’t find anywhere else! These events offer visitors and locals alike a unique opportunity to celebrate the warm months while experiencing Korea's distinct heritage, customs, and sense of community. In this article, I will explore 3 unique and interesting summer festivals in Korea and discuss what makes them so diverse and extraordinary in comparison to summer traditions in North America.
Watch a video promoting Boryeong Mud Festival above!
Held annually in July at Daecheon Beach in Boryeong, Chungcheongnam-do, the Boryeong Mud Festival draws hundreds of thousands of tourists to its shores with mineral-rich mudslides, mud wrestling competitions, and mud baths. The festival provides a unique opportunity for people to enjoy mud-themed recreational activities such as swimming, football, wrestling, and various spectacles while being covered in natural Boryeong mud, which is believed to have beneficial properties for the skin. Tourists can flock to Daecheon beach to enjoy a unique beach vacation experience that is different from any beach vacation found in North America!
Another Korean summer festival held annually in July, the Geumsan Samgyetang Festival held in Geumsan County, Chungcheongnam-do is centred around Samgyetang, a traditional Korean summer health food. Samgyetang is consumed during the hot summer months due to its purported benefit of replenishing the body’s nutrients lost from sweating and physical activity. Geumsan Samgyetang is known to be especially healthy due to the Ginseng in the Geumsan region containing large amounts of medicinal elements compared to ginseng grown in the United States, Canada, or China. Visitors to the festival can taste and feel the benefits of the unique Geumsan Samgyetang and Geumsan Ginseng themselves as well as visit the many natural wonders in the area. This is a truly unique Korean experience that cannot be found in North America.
Watch a video promoting Waterbomb 2019 above!
The Waterbomb Festival in Seoul, also known as the Seoul Water Bomb Festival, is an exciting summer event that combines water-based activities, music, and entertainment. It is held annually in Seoul, the capital city of Korea, and has gained popularity with hundreds of thousands of tourists and locals attending every year! The festival is known for mixing various water sports such as water gun fights and swimming with a large scale EDM and pop music festival. North American visitors will be pleasantly surprised when they find this Korean spin on a popular North American summer activity!
All-in-all, exploring the Boryeong Mud Festival, Geumsan Samgyetang Festival and Waterbomb Festival provides a captivating glimpse into the distinctiveness of Korean summer festivals, offering a refreshing and unparalleled experience that diverges from the traditional summertime traditions found in North America.
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