An aerial view of the Christmas-themed Gwanghwamun Market in Seoul, Dec. 13, 2024. Courtesy of Seoul Tourism Group
Santa Claus, conventional and LED lanterns and media artwork are set to gentle up central Seoul this winter as town rolls out main Christmas and year-end festivals designed to draw guests to Gwanghwamun Sq. and Cheonggye Stream, two of town’s most symbolic public areas.
A Christmas tree and lights illuminate Gwanghwamun Market in Seoul, Dec. 17, 2024. Korea Occasions picture by Choi Heung-soo
Gwanghwamun Sq. turns into Santa’s Village
From Friday to Dec. 31, Gwanghwamun Sq. will remodel into the 2025 Gwanghwamun Market, a European-style Christmas village constructed round a 15-meter Christmas tree and a newly put in Rudolph carousel.
Now in its fourth yr, the market has rapidly turn out to be considered one of Seoul’s signature winter sights, drawing 1.64 million guests and producing about 700 million gained ($476,372) in gross sales for 141 small companies over 24 days final winter, in accordance with the Seoul Tourism Group (STO).
2025 Gwanghwamun Market poster / Courtesy of Seoul Tourism Group
This yr’s idea, “Santa Village in a Winter Fairy Story,” divides the sq. into three zones — a village entrance, play plaza and village market — full of greater than 10 themed picture spots resembling a nutcracker home, gingerbread cookie home and teddy bear picture studio. The market runs in three seasons with rotating distributors, that includes some 100 small enterprise groups promoting winter treats, crafts and seasonal items.
The STO has additionally introduced in world manufacturers to lift the occasion’s profile. The Walt Disney Firm Korea will stage an “Avatar: The Final Air” expertise zone that recreates a brand new ash-covered Pandora tribe, British heritage label Barbour will current a “Wallace and Gromit” Christmas tree and participatory coloring wall, and Nespresso will supply a festive tree and restricted espresso tastings.
STO CEO Gil Gi-yeon stated this yr’s market focuses on immersive, childlike enjoyable. The house is “designed as a city-center Christmas competition the place guests can … really feel their inside youngster and revel in a heat winter on this particular place.”
Sculptures of “eosa-hwa” (paper flowers) and “jokduri” (headdress) gentle up the air above Cheonggye Stream throughout Seoul Lantern Pageant in Seoul, Dec. 17, 2024. Korea Occasions picture by Choi Heung-soo
Seoul Lantern Pageant alongside Cheonggye and Ui streams
Working on overlapping dates, the 2025 Seoul Lantern Pageant will illuminate Cheonggye and Ui streams from Friday to Jan. 4 beneath the theme “My Mild, Our Dream, Seoul’s Magic.”
Marking its seventeenth version, the competition will showcase greater than 400 gentle sculptures and media artworks in 4 themed sections, which organizers say will make this probably the most content-rich version but, providing a denser, extra immersive night time stroll stretching from Cheonggye Plaza to Samil Bridge.
2025 Seoul Lantern Pageant poster / Courtesy of Seoul Tourism Group
The primary zone, Miracle Seoul, blends conventional hanji lanterns and media artwork to depict Seoul’s previous, current and future – from the primary electrical lights at Gyeongbok Palace to early trams and imagined future skylines. The second zone, Golden Secret, makes use of colourful gat-shaped lanterns and LED media to reinterpret Ok-culture and existence drawn from social media buzzwords and memes.
The Dream Mild part showcases collaborations with set up and modern artists who use recycled supplies resembling discarded headlights and waste wooden to assemble large-scale moon jars, polar bears and fountains.
The ultimate part, Seoul Fantasia, encompasses a 15-meter “Seoul Moon” suspended above the water, that includes Seoul’s mascot Hechi and common kids’s character Teenieping on an imagined house voyage.
The ultimate spotlight of the competition is the Aurora section, which makes use of greater than 30 laser items and thoroughly managed fog to supply a three-dimensional gentle curtain above the stream.
