 |
| People gather for the annual bell-ringing ceremony to celebrate the New Year at Bosingak Pavilion in central Seoul. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul |
Korea will resume allowing an audience to attend its annual bell-ringing ceremony to celebrate the New Year after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The ceremony hosted by the Seoul Metropolitan Government will begin at 11:30 p.m. Saturday at Bosingak Pavilion in central Seoul with about 100,000 people in attendance.
Cho Gue-sung, a member of the national football team who competed in the World Cup in Qatar, painter-actress Jung Eun-hye of the popular TV drama "Our Blues," and honorary ambassador of Seoul and comedian Kim Tae-kyun will be among the 10 representatives of the people to participate in the ceremony, city officials said.
The annual New Year's Eve bell-ringing celebration has been held without an in-person audience for the past two years due to the pandemic.
To prevent overcrowding, this year's event will be held simultaneously at Bosingak, Gwanghwamun Square and Dongdaemun Design Plaza, and broadcast online.
Traffic will be halted around the Bosingak area from 9 p.m. Saturday to 1:30 a.m. Sunday for safety reasons. Subway trains will also bypass Jonggak Station there from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m.
 |
| Officials from the Seoul city government cleaning the Bosingak bell in central Seoul, Dec. 28, ahead of the popular bell-ringing ceremony that takes place around midnight on New Year's Eve. Yonhap |
To reach out to a wider audience, the city will also invite 22 popular YouTubers whose combined viewership reaches 21.3 million, the officials said.
A music concert of "gugak" (Korean traditional music) artists and popera singers will accompany the bell ringing to add to the festive mood.
Crowds of people descended on popular sunset spots across the country. The crowds came to view the year's last sunset to look back on this year and wish for happiness in the New Year.
The government had banned sunset and sunrise events at national parks and major spots for the past couple of years during the pandemic. (Yonhap)
![[INTERVIEW] Lee Jun-hyuk unrecognizable in 'The Roundup: No Way Out'](https://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/thumbnailV2/77a9da6df7da4284adbee249a87307c1.jpg/dims/resize/178/optimize)
