Colorful lanterns, smell of incense roaming around temples and the sound of sutras and prayers yearly decorate the streets of Seoul in celebration of Buddha's birthday. Buddha's birthday is celebrated in South Korea on the 8th day of the 4th month of the lunar calendar which landed this year on the 25th of May 2015. During the entire 4th lunar month, colorful lanterns lit at night decorate the streets throughout the whole country in celebration. In Korea, Buddha's birthday is usually called "부처님 오신 날" (Bucheonim osin nal) meaning the day when Buddha arrived. The celebration represents not the day that the Buddha was born but rather a recognition of his enlightenment, teaching and wisdom.

Historically, during the Japanese colonization period (1910 -1945) Buddha's birthday brought together Korean and Japanese Buddhists, it was celebrated on the 8th of April and was seen as the primary state and religious celebration of the time. In the post colonization period, before Buddha's birthday was recognized as a public holiday, the U.S. military government officials named Christmas as a national public holiday in 1945 which was then embraced by the first South Korean Government formed in 1948. Many Buddhists at the time deemed this a pro-Christian policy and fought for the right to have Buddha's birthday recognized as a national holiday which was finally honored in 1975 after a decade long legal battle¹.

The Lotus Lantern Festival, or "Yeondeunghoe'', organized yearly to celebrate Buddha's birthday was designated as the country's Important Intangible Cultural Heritage No. 122 by the Cultural Heritage Administration of Korea in 2012. The festival's activities include traditional lantern exhibitions, concerts, and traditional cultural events including lantern making and cultural performances with the main event being the Lantern Parade. During the Lantern parade the main streets of Seoul are limited to pedestrians for the night and more than 100,000 brightly colored illuminated lanterns and lantern floats in various shapes are paraded down the streets. On the day of Buddha's birthday many people meet within Buddhist temples to pray and light lanterns to symbolically transfer the wisdom and compassion of Buddha. In 2015, the streets of Seoul are lit with colorful lanterns and the vibrant Lantern parade attracted thousands of participants.

• ¹ Kim, Hwansoo. "A Buddhist Christmas: The Buddha's Birthday Festival in Colonial Korea (1928-1945)." Journal of Korean Religions 2, no. 2 (2011): 47-82.