Seoul Winter Festa 2023 to kick off next month, including countdown, bell-ringing event

▲ This photo, provided by the Seoul metropolitan government, shows the main lighting events to be hosted as part of the Seoul Winter Festa 2023. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

▲ A poster of the Seoul Winter Festa 2023, set to be hosted from Dec. 15 through Jan. 21, provided by the Seoul metropolitan government (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

winter festival-Seoul city

Seoul Winter Festa 2023 to kick off next month, including countdown, bell-ringing event

SEOUL, Nov. 22 (Yonhap) -- The Seoul city government on Wednesday announced plans to launch Seoul Winter Festa, a network of various festivals across the city starting next month, including a New Year's countdown and bell-ringing event.

Seoul Winter Festa 2023 will kick off on Dec. 15 under the theme of lights coloring the city, including 10 festivals and events utilizing lighting technology and projection mapping, and last until Jan. 21.

It will begin with a lighting event featuring an 800-meter-long media facade from the ceremonial stage in front of Gyeongbok Palace's Gwanghwamun gate to the Gwanghwamun Square.

The annual Seoul Lantern Festival will lure visitors under the theme of "white night in Seoul," and a lighting event illustrating the supernature's wonders will be held in the green space in Songhyeon-dong of the central ward of Jongno, which opened to the public last year for the first time in 110 years.

The highlight of this year's festival is the countdown event scheduled in three locations in central Seoul, and the traditional bell-ringing ceremony at Bosingak Pavilion at midnight on New Year's Eve, officials said.

The bell will be rung 33 times by 18 people, including the civic representative and global influencers, and a 12-meter-wide sun display will be staged in the middle of a street that runs through Jongno ward to celebrate the dawn of the new year.

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