Korean festivals and events in March

Spring arrives from the south. On Jeju, the fire festival at Saebyeol Oreum, a grassy volcanic cone, lights the hillside with fireworks, lasers and torches in early to mid March. Gwangyang's plum orchards bloom in the first three weeks of the month, and in mid-March Gurye, at the foot of Jirisan, holds a nine-day festival as its sansuyu (cornelian cherry) villages turn yellow. Gangjin's celadon festival runs into the first days of March. Cherry-blossom season starts in the last days of the month: Jinhae, the navy town beside Busan, holds Korea's largest cherry-blossom festival, and depending on the bloom, Gyeongju's stone-wall road at Daereungwon, Seokchon Lake and Yeouido in Seoul and the canola fields along Noksan-ro in Seogwipo can hold their festivals in late March or early April. The Jindo sea-road festival depends on spring tides and can land in March or April.