Icheon Rice Festival 2011

 Icheon is famous for producing the best rice in Korea. In fact Icheon rice is so good that it used to be served to the king of Korea, and is still highly thought of today. 

 The Icheon Rice Culture Festival celebrates its famous rice and also the local agricultural practices. 
Major events of the festival include a reenactment of the parade that transported rice to Hanseong (the old name for Seoul) for presentation to the king, and the huge rice cauldron that is capable of feeding thousands of people.

Not only the color of the leave changing but also the green fields of rice is goanna colored yellow and the fields of rice become more attractive. Yes, the harvesting season is coming up. Korean people are long waiting for this season. They are crazy to get their rice crop. It is the real time of celebrations.

 In fact they perform many traditional ceremonies at this moment.

I heard that since very long, these traditions are maintained and promoted. A big festival is celebrated in Icheon every year last week of October. The rice festival is held at the same park as the ceramics events; Seolbong Park

.This Time I have an opportunity to go with my friends and explore the traditions of Korean culture. Actually My School Hanyang University have arranged a trip for the Internationals to have a taste of rice festival.

 As we headed into the festival area we saw a massive line of people waiting for something. At first we thought maybe you have to pay for entry or something this year, but actually everyone was waiting to get a free plant .

We have much fun encoded with games, performing arts, musical show, traditional paintings, and much more. There were a number of foreigners participating this festival. They were a good participation from Korean as well. Especially there were lots of children with their parents and School organizers.

Stamps collecting on a Card leads me to win 5 Kg of rice.. I was really crazy for that…J Many of my friends participated in many games and fortunately we won many games.

It was a nice day having much opportunity to bring smile in our faces.

Period

10.25.2012 ~ 10.28.2012

Address

Gyeonggi-do Icheon-si Gwango-dong

Location

Seolbong Park

Transportation

Take a bus to Icheon Bus Terminal. From Seoul Express Bus Terminal (06:30-21:20/ departs every 30~50min/ takes 1hr) Or, From Dong Seoul Bus Terminal (06:20-22:40, departs every 15~20min/ takes 1hr) From Icheon Terminal, take a free shuttle bus to the venue and get off at Seolbong Park (Bus operates from 08:30 to 18:30 / runs every 20mins and take 15-20mins to get to the event venue). Homepage www.ricefestival.or.kr (Korean, English, Japanese)