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| Pengsoo, South Korea's beloved giant penguin, talks on his YouTube channel. Courtesy of EBS |
By Lee Suh-yoon
Pengsoo, the genderless giant penguin and mega-hit cartoon character, will ring the bell at Bosingak to welcome the New Year with 10 other figures of the year, according to Seoul City, Thursday.
Bosingak is a pavilion in central Seoul where the annual New Year bell-ringing ceremony is held.
Expressionless and with a nasal, middle-aged voice, the two-meter-tall mascot from the Education Broadcasting System (EBS) channel is Korea's latest sensation. Millennials and young office workers dote on his blunt personality and frequent jabs at the strict hierarchy norms in Korean society. Pengsoo's YouTube channel has 1.5 million followers.
The annual Bosingak event will take place at midnight just after Tuesday. Among those next to Pengsoo will be Lee Soo-jung, a renowned criminal psychologist who made it onto the BBC's list of 100 most influential women for 2019, and Michael Reiterer, the European Union ambassador in Korea.
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| The previous Bosingak New Year bell-ringing ceremony in central Seoul. Joint Press Corps |
Other citizen representatives include a disability rights lawyer, the head of a women's startup association, a Korean War veteran, an immigrant working mother from the Philippines, a 19-year-old bowler who won gold in the national athletic tournament, and the former head of the May 18 Memorial Foundation for the 1980 Gwangju Massacre. Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon will also attend to give his New Year's message to residents.
The bell-ringing ceremony ― joined by a peace-themed concert by punk band No Brain, K-pop girl group HINAPIA and others ― will run from 10:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. Public buses and trains will run late, with subway operating hours extended until 2 a.m. on Wednesday morning.
The bell pavilion was set up in 1396 during the early days of the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910) to signal the opening and closing of the old city gates in the morning and evening.
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