Thursday, April 30, 2009

A Cultural Event to Remember

My coworkers and I were invited to a ceromony/event by the ROK (Republic of Korea) Navy to honor Admiral Yi. Being that Admiral Yi was, in many eyes, the greatest naval sea commander of all time, I jumped at a chance to honor this great Korean hero. It was my understanding, that this was the first time that Koreans invited the US Navy to the particular event. The event was held in a sea port town called Tong Yeong. It was a very beautiful city with rich Korean culture and history emanating from throughout. I missed the opportunity to get views of the town from the mountain top as we departed because the camera was completely full of pics.
I thought you might want to see some of the pics.
Here are some Korean Navy artifacts from the Admiral Yi years. Horns, flags, spears, and swords. The Koreans ruled the seas with the help of their unique Turtle Ship (pictured below).



I took a picture of the dancers preparing for the festival.
The entrance to the shrine.

Here is a closer pic of the dancers. (They performed a rendition of the Korean victory dance)
Preparing for the ceremony inside the shrine.


It was my understanding that these older men were the veterans of this ritual. They all bowed before the shrine to pay respect to Admiral Yi.

The men in blue are modern day naval officers which have their escort/teacher to present them and walk them through the ceremonial program.


The Korean ladies performing the traditional Victory Dance.
The band. They played traditional korean instruments throughout the ceremony.
The Victory dance. It was performed twice. Once under the tent in front of the shrine and then again in an open courtyard about 50 yards away.
The Command Master Chief was very kind to teach us Korean customs and help us through the ceremony. He took several pictures of us. I took this pic of him taking my pic while eating.
The foods that were prepared and placed in the shrine were blessed during the ceremony. Upon completion of the ceremony, they served the food to the guests. We had fruits, deserts, bibimbap, and, of course, kim chee. The food went so fast, I only had a brief chance to take this pic of a dessert plate.



This was truly a special moment for me and my fellow shipmates. I was truly honored by the invitation. The Korean navy is awesome.

10 Smart Readers SAID::

Cecile said...

very interesting ceremony you posted here, joops, thanks for sharing :-).

u have a tag for you, btw :-).
http://kenyonville.com , thanks!

have dropped ec here also

amiable amy said...

wow...that is really a nice experience my friend....interesting ...thanks for sharing the pictures

Clarissa said...

Thanks for sharing!I haven' t seen anything like that before.Awesome!

Dhemz said...

wow! I love how they preserve their tradition and culture....this ceremony is spectacular...thanks for sharing John....say hi to you wifey!

Kim, USA said...

Wow great pictures you've got here John. I love the colorful costumes I wished someday I could see a traditional Korean costumes and a traditional dance too. Thanks for sharing the pictures.

anney said...

Thank you for sharing these pictures! Such a great and special event!

SandyCarlson said...

That looks like an interesting ceremony. Beautiful pictures.

iceah said...

very nice and interesting c: I specially like to see cultural dances and music instruments because I was in theatre in college and I still love doing it c:

Anonymous said...

thanks for dropping by have a nice day

Rossel said...

Very interesting. It's always good to learn about the culture of other countries.

Thanks for dropping by.

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