Seoul invites 18 special guests to ring in new year

The Seoul city government on Wednesday announced a list of 18 people who will join the city‘s bell-tolling ceremony on New Year’s Eve.

The 12 civic bell ringers, selected by the city as “People of the Year,” include 18-year-old Yoon Do-il, who risked his life to help others when a knife attack occurred at Seohyeon station in Bundang, Gyeonggi Province, in August; Park Sang-woo, a radiology technologist who performed CPR on a person who had collapsed in an Itaewon alley for five minutes last March, saving their life; Baek Nak-mun, son of the late Baek Nak-sam, who owned a wedding hall that offered 15,000 couples free weddings over 55 years; 82-year-old Kim Jeong-ja, the oldest taker of the College Scholastic Ability Test this year; and Albiol Andres, the first subway train operator of foreign nationality -- Argentinian -- in Korea, city officials said.

After the Seoul Metropolitan Government gathered recommendations from the public from Nov. 13 to Dec. 8, it selected 12 civil representatives through a screening process from among recommended candidates, according to city officials.

The city government also selected six social media influencers as civic bell ringers aiming to introduce the attractiveness of Seoul and Korea to people overseas through their YouTube and TikTok channels. They include Jang Elina, a naturalized citizen of Korea from Uzbekistan, and Kika Kim, a Korean national living in Kazakhstan.

“We tried to select civic bell ringers who have overcome adversity, quietly influenced society, practiced sharing and service in challenging circumstances, inspired hope and courage through their work in various societal fields or enhanced national prestige on the international stage,” said the city government.

The selected individuals will participate in ringing the bell 33 times at Bosingak, a pavilion in Jongno, central Seoul, on New Year‘s Eve, closing out this year and ushering in the new year.

The bell-ringing ceremony has been held annually since 1953. The event follows practices from the Joseon era (1392-1910), when the bell was rung 33 times at 4 a.m. to signal the end of the night curfew and the start of the new day. Under the tradition, the ringing of the bell bids farewell to the old year and expresses hope, happiness and expectations for the year to come.