Saturday night and Seoul Tower is dark. The searchlights usually lightening up the big concrete land mark on the Nam Mountain in central Seoul have all been turned off. Instead, the square around the tower is filled with candles, celebrating the "Candle Night," an event to celebrate a slow and peaceful way of living under the message: "Turn off the lights. Take it slow."
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| For the third time the NGO Korean Women's Environmental Network organized the festival.The idea is simple -- to turn off the lights for two hours, from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. and enjoy some time by candlelight. People can do it in their own way, joining an event or just staying at home. The idea is to suggest that people share alternative ways of spending time, turning away from goods and information.
Already before sunset, many people had gathered around Seoul Tower to prepare for turning the lights off. The organizers had set up small workshops for making bee wax candles and candle holders out of plastic coups from coffee shops or bamboo. When the darkness started to fall, candles were put up in shapes of hearts, flowers, snails and nurim -- the Korean word for "slow."
When finishing the preparations, people were gathering around a strange set up especially for the Candle Night.
"Sometimes we have to stop and think," said one of the organizers and started counting down. The audience followed, and on zero, the lights of Seoul Tower was shut down step by step. At other places in Seoul, Lotte Department Store, Dong-ah Daily, City Hall and Kia turned off their lights. Simultaneously, big buildings in Tokyo and Beijing were turning off their lights and in other time zones, about 20 countries participated in the event.
The event could even be followed online. An online message board, the Candlescape, displays messages from participants springing up from a rotating globe.
At Nam Mountain, the Candle Night proposal was read out in the light of the candles: "This night can mean many things for many people. A time to save energy, to think about peace, to think about people in distant lands who share our planet."
Candle Night movement first started in Japan in 2003 when the NGOs Association to preserve the Earth and the Sloth Club managed to gather other environmental groups around the message "Turn off the lights. Takes it slow." The NGOs were inspired by the Canadian movement Voluntary Blackout who protested against the Bush administration's environmental policy.
In Japan, more than 65,000 public facilities and business, including the Tokyo Tower, the Rainbow Bridge in Tokyo, the Clock Tower in Sapporo and the Tsuutenkaku in Osaka turn off their lights off on the solar solstice. In 2007, the event reduced the power consumption by 812,508 kilowatt-hours.
This year, an additional event will be organized in Japan on July 7. On the day for the G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit, people will again turn their lights off and taking it slow to point out that the word has more countries then the eight participating in the G8 Summit.
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