People make New Year’s wishes while watching the first sunrise

People watch the rising sun at Seonyu Bridge in Seonyudo Park in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, South Korea, on the first day of the new year of the Chinese calendar year 2024. Taehyung Cho Reporter phototom@kyunghyang.com

On the very first day of 2024, the Year of Blue Dragon, Seoul was packed with people watching the first sunrise of the New Year. People vowed to have a hopeful year while watching the red sunrise.

Seoul's iconic N Seoul Tower in Yongsan-gu was filled with people who left their homes early in the morning to see the sunrise. The citizens, heavily armed with padded jackets, fur hats, and scarves, gathered at Namsan Octagonal Pavilion and the fortress trail an hour earlier than the predicted sunrise time of 7:40 a.m. to wait for the sunrise. As the sun rose around 7:50 a.m., people captured the sunrise with their cell phone cameras or put their hands together to make a wish.

According to Seoul's real-time city data, around 15,000 people had gathered at Namsan Park as of 8 a.m. Other popular sunrise spots, including Haneul Park in Mapo-gu and Achasan Oulim Square in Gwangjin-gu, were also crowded with many visitors.

Seo Ji-won, 30, an office worker who watched the sunrise from her apartment veranda, said, “At first, it was hard to see the sunrise because it was cloudy, but after waiting a little longer, I could see the sunrise," adding, "Even if things don't seem to be going well right now, if we continue wait patiently, we will be able to achieve what we want eventually. I hope everyone will have a great new year, even if there are twists and turns."

"I felt very cold last winter because there weren't many job postings for the companies I wanted," said Mr. Lee, 26, a job applicant. "In the new year, I want to get a job as soon as possible so that I can find physical and mental stability and take care of my family."

Citizens also expressed their hope for economic and international stability. Park Myung-hwa, 66, who lives in Gwangmyeong, Gyeonggi Province, said, "Even when I try to make a rice cake soup, I'm afraid to buy ingredients because prices are too high." She added, "I think the government should try its best to make people feel more comfortable. That way, we can solve the problem of people not getting married and not having children." Ms. Ahn, 23, a university student, said, "If you look at the international news last year, there were many parts that were stained with sadness and pain, such as the Israel-Hamas war and the Russia-Ukraine war. I hope the world will be peaceful this year."

Earlier in the day, around 97,000 people gathered around Bosingak, a large bell pavilion in Jongno-gu, Seoul, to greet the New Year with the sound of the bell at midnight. That was double the 50,000 people who attended a bell-tolling ceremony last year.

At this year’s event, 22 people, including 12 civic representatives, including Yoon Do-il, a righteous man who found and rescued a woman who had collapsed during the stabbing attack at Seohyun Station in Bundang, Gyeonggi Province, last year, and Kim Jung-ja, the oldest test taker for the 2024 college entrance exam, rang the bell.

※This article has undergone review by a professional translator after being translated by an AI translation tool.