I joined some new acquaintances from my Korean class for the Gaya Festival in a nearby town known as Gimhae. The leader of our class, who goes by the name Sonny drove Tina, Chantalle, and myself down to see the festivities.
Gaya, an ancient kingdom that occupied the Southern portion of the Korean Peninsula nearly 2000 years ago is remembered today in an annual spring folk festival. Many people in this part of Korea feel a connection to the ancient culture and society that once existed here. Every spring, the people of Gimhae celebrate this history for 2 weeks.
Unfortunately, we had arrived on the second to last day of the festival, and found that the main king's tomb and most of all the best festivities ran their course long before our arrival. Nevertheless, we had a good time looking around at what remained. One exhibit area showed off several different aspects of Gaya material cultures and artifacts from that era, showing everything from musical instruments of the time, to weapons, art, and ancient iron smelting techniques.
We met and spoke with this man for some time, who was selling numerous musical instruments.
Here's Tina and Sonny playing a duet together!
We also found this interesting torture device from ancient Korea. Perfect for CIA enhanced interrogation techniques!
Anyways, we had a great time, and I hope to have more pictures up later. Sonny, Tina, Chantalle: you can click on the pictures to see the rest of the photos I've uploaded. Check back later as I might put more up as I edit the worst of them.
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