Festivals in South Korea: lanterns, mud, masks and Seollal or Chuseok

How festival dates work in Korea

Korea uses the Gregorian calendar, but VisitKorea notes that its traditional holidays still follow the lunar calendar, so Seollal, Buddha's Birthday, Dano and Chuseok move each year. The Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute's official lunar calendar converter gives the 2027 dates: the first day of the first lunar month (Seollal) falls on 7 February 2027, the eighth day of the fourth month (Buddha's Birthday) on 13 May, the fifth day of the fifth month (Dano) on 9 June, and the fifteenth day of the eighth month (Chuseok) on 15 September. The government confirms public holidays and any substitute days separately, so check those before you fix flights.

Most other festivals keep to a season rather than a date, and the organisers announce each year's programme a few months ahead. When we checked on 2026-10-03, VisitKorea's Hwacheon page already listed the January 2027 ice festival, but the pages for the spring and summer festivals still showed their 2026 editions. Use those as a guide to the timing, then confirm on the festival's own website before booking; this guide names that site for each festival.

Book the room first. Festival towns such as Jinju, Andong and Boryeong have far fewer hotels than Seoul or Busan, the main events happen in the evening, and a night in town is the difference between seeing the lanterns lit and leaving to catch the last bus.

Seollal and Chuseok: what the two big holidays do to a trip

VisitKorea calls Seollal (Lunar New Year) and Chuseok (the harvest festival often called Korean Thanksgiving) the most important traditional holidays, when millions of people visit their home towns. Each is a three-day public holiday, the main day plus the day before and the day after. In 2026 Seollal ran from 16 to 18 February and Chuseok from 24 to 26 September, according to VisitKorea's public holiday list. For 2027, the lunar dates above put Seollal on 7 February and Chuseok on 15 September, so expect holidays around 6–8 February and 14–16 September, subject to the government's confirmation.

For a visitor, the effect is mixed. VisitKorea says that on public holidays palaces, museums, department stores and amusement facilities are open, while government offices and banks close, but during Seollal most businesses close and during both holidays some shut for several days in a row. Smaller attractions often close on the main day itself: VisitKorea lists the Hahoe Mask Museum in Andong, for example, as closed on 1 January and on the days of Seollal and Chuseok. Family-run restaurants and market stalls are the most likely to be shut.

The upside is the cities' heritage programme. VisitKorea's guide to the traditional holidays says many royal palaces, including Gyeongbokgung and Deoksugung, hold events and offer free admission during the Seollal and Chuseok holidays, along with museums and folk villages. The practical plan is to spend the holiday in Seoul, Busan or Gyeongju with a hotel already booked, to do your long train or bus journeys before the first day or after the last, and to expect intercity traffic to peak at the start and end of the break, when the whole country travels at once.

Spring: cherry blossom in Jinhae and the Lotus Lantern Festival

The Jinhae Gunhangje Festival in Changwon is the biggest of the cherry-blossom festivals. VisitKorea says it began in 1952 as a memorial ceremony for Admiral Yi Sun-sin, became a festival in 1963 and now draws more than two million visitors, when about 360,000 king cherry trees flower across Jinhae. The 2026 edition ran from 27 March to 5 April, with a memorial rite, a victory parade, a military band and honour guard festival on Friday evenings and weekends, and rare public access to the Korea Naval Academy and the naval base. Its official site is jgfestival.or.kr. The blossom does not wait for the calendar, so see our cherry blossom guide for how to read the forecasts.

In Seoul, Yeon Deung Hoe, the Lotus Lantern Festival, celebrates Buddha's Birthday. VisitKorea traces it back about 1,200 years to the Silla dynasty and notes its UNESCO recognition. When we checked on 2026-10-03, VisitKorea listed the 2026 festival on 16 and 17 May in the Jongno area, free, with a traditional lantern exhibition, a Buddhist cheer rally, the lantern parade and a street celebration afterwards, organised by the Yeon Deung Hoe Preservation Committee (llf.or.kr). That was the weekend before the Buddha's Birthday holiday on 24 May. With Buddha's Birthday on 13 May in 2027, expect the festival earlier in the month, and wait for the committee's announcement.

Stay in Jongno for the lantern festival: VisitKorea lists the Jongno area as the venue, so you can walk back to your room after the evening parade instead of queuing for transport. VisitKorea's holiday page adds that on Buddha's Birthday itself, temples across the country hold ceremonies and hang lanterns along the streets leading to them, so a temple visit that week is worthwhile anywhere.

Summer: the Boryeong Mud Festival and Dano

The Boryeong Mud Festival is Korea's best-known summer party, held beside Daecheon Beach on the west coast. When we checked on 2026-10-03, VisitKorea listed the 2026 festival from 24 July to 9 August at the Boryeong Mud Expo Plaza, with paid entry, a general zone with a mud run, a family zone, a water-park zone, the Mud Mob Scene with DJ sets and mud cannons, a drone show over the sea and night concerts. The 2027 dates will appear on mudfestival.or.kr. It is loud, crowded and messy by design: bring clothes you can throw away, and read our Boryeong guide for the ticket zones and how to get there.

Dano, the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, is the older summer festival. VisitKorea's guide to the traditional holidays describes customs such as washing hair in water boiled with sweet flag and ssireum wrestling, and names the Gangneung Danoje Festival on the east coast as the main celebration, inscribed by UNESCO, with rope swinging, ssireum, tug-of-war and traditional performances. Dano falls on 9 June in 2027; the festival committee publishes its programme on danojefestival.or.kr, where the 2026 programme listed events between 15 and 22 June.

Late September and October: the heritage festival fortnight

If you can choose only one window, choose the first half of October. In 2026 four major festivals overlapped, all listed on VisitKorea when we checked on 2026-10-03; confirm next year's dates, but expect the same season.

The Andong Maskdance Festival ran from 24 September to 4 October 2026 around Jungang Line 1942 Andong Station, Mask Dance Park and the old downtown, free with charges for some programmes. VisitKorea describes Korean and international mask dances, a street parade, mask-making and a world mask play competition, and notes that Korea's mask dance traditions are on UNESCO's intangible heritage list. Pair it with a night in Hahoe Village and its own mask dance drama; see our Andong guide (maskdance.com for the programme).

The Jinju Namgang Yudeung Festival fills the Namgang River below Jinjuseong Fortress with lanterns. VisitKorea traces the tradition to the 1592 Battle of Jinjuseong in the Imjin War, when lanterns were floated as military signals and as messages between families; the festival grew out of the Gaecheon Art Festival, first held in 1949, and has run on its own since 2000. When we checked, the 2026 edition was listed from 3 to 18 October, free, from 13:00 to 23:00, with floating and land lantern exhibitions, a drone light show and water fireworks (yudeung.com). The lanterns are the point, so arrive in the afternoon, walk the fortress before dusk and stay by the river after dark. VisitKorea listed Jinjuseong itself as open 05:00–23:00 from March to October, with adult admission at 2,000 won.

Closer to Seoul, the Suwon Hwaseong Cultural Festival was listed from 4 to 11 October 2026 at Hwaseong Fortress, reimagining King Jeongjo's royal procession of 1795 (shfestival.com). Its centrepiece, King Jeongjo's Royal Parade, was a one-day reenactment on 4 October 2026 that VisitKorea says starts from Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul and is organised jointly by Seoul, Gyeonggi Province, Suwon and Hwaseong. In South Chungcheong, the Baekje Cultural Festival, first held in 1955, was listed from 3 to 11 October 2026 across the UNESCO-listed Baekje sites in Gongju and Buyeo.

• Andong Maskdance Festival: late September to early October; central Andong. Two nights, one of them in Hahoe.
• Jinju Namgang Yudeung Festival: first half of October; the Namgang River and Jinjuseong Fortress. One or two nights by the river.
• Suwon Hwaseong Cultural Festival and the Royal Parade: early October; Suwon is an easy trip from Seoul, so check the parade route and day.
• Baekje Cultural Festival: early October; Gongju and Buyeo. Base yourself in one and visit the other.

November to January: fireworks in Busan and ice in Hwacheon

The Busan Fireworks Festival is a single autumn evening on Gwangalli Beach. When we checked on 2026-10-03, the festival's official site listed the 21st edition on Saturday 7 November 2026 around Gwangalli Beach, Igidae and Dongbaekseom, with regular tickets on sale through NOL Ticket until 6 November at 17:00. VisitKorea says it draws crowds of over a million, and that Hwangnyeongsan Mountain, Dongbaekseom Island and Igidae Coastal Park also give good views. If you go without a ticket, choose a viewpoint early and plan to walk part of the way home; the official site publishes the evening's traffic controls.

In deep winter, the Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival in Gangwon takes over the frozen Hwacheoncheon Stream. When we checked on 2026-10-03, VisitKorea listed the 2027 festival from 9 to 31 January, with paid entry, ice fishing (on site or booked ahead), catching mountain trout by hand, lure fishing and snow and ice sledding, from 09:00 to 18:00 and night fishing until 21:00. It says the festival draws more than a million visitors and that the fish you catch can be eaten raw or grilled on the spot. The official site is narafestival.com. It depends on the ice: dress for serious cold and check for weather notices before you travel.