Busan Sunrise Festival

What it is

The Busan Sunrise Festival is a yearly event in Busan, South Korea, held to greet the first sunrise of the new year. The sources give its Korean name as 부산해맞이축제, written in Latin letters as Busan Haemaji Chukje. Rather than filling a single day, it stretches over two: the evening of 31 December and the morning of 1 January. Busan's city government and a local festival association are behind it, and members of the public have taken part from the start, from choosing its early publicity poster to standing on the beach at dawn. It is a civic occasion, not a religious one, and it belongs to the city as a whole.

Origins and history

The festival dates from 1999. That year the Busan Metropolitan City Government and the Busan Cultural Festival Promotion Association put the first edition together, with the aim of drawing attention to the city. To make the new event known before it happened, the two bodies asked the public to take part in choosing an official poster. The call went out in April, and people were invited to join in the selection. That choice of an open competition says something about how the festival was imagined: as something the city's residents would shape, not simply receive. It has been held every year since, on the same two days, and the organisations behind it are named in the record.

The two days

Things begin on the last evening of the year, 31 December, at Yongdusan Park, where a bell is tolled. Its ringing marks the passing of the old year. The next morning, 1 January, people come to Haeundae Beach to watch the sun rise, and this is the heart of the festival. One moment closes the year and the other opens it. The two settings shape the event as well: a park in the city for the bell, a beach for the sunrise. The sources name these two rites, the bell toll and the sunrise, and nothing else, as the festival's observances.

How Busan Sunrise Festival is kept

Two moments carry the festival. On 31 December, a bell is tolled at Yongdusan Park in Busan, marking the end of the year. On 1 January, people gather at Haeundae Beach for the sunrise, which is the centre of the occasion. Between them comes the turn of the calendar. The city government and the Busan Cultural Festival Promotion Association are the bodies named as running it, and the public has been part of it from the first year, when an open call in April let people choose the official poster for the launch.

When and where

It falls at the turn of the year. The bell ritual belongs to 31 December, and the sunrise watching to 1 January. Both dates sit on the Gregorian calendar, so the festival keeps the same two days each year, and it has been described as an annual event since it began in 1999.

Busan, in South Korea, is the city it belongs to. Within Busan, the sources tie it to two places: Yongdusan Park, where the bell is tolled, and Haeundae Beach, where the sunrise is watched. Those are the sites the record names, and the sources give no other city for the festival.

What Busan Sunrise Festival means

The festival is about endings and beginnings. The bell closes one year; the sunrise opens the next. For the people of Busan it is a shared public moment, arranged by the city rather than by a religious body, and it marks a new year in the company of neighbours and visitors alike. The sources set out no wider meaning, so what the festival carries is mostly this: a city pausing together at the point where the calendar turns.

Days Busan Sunrise Festival is marked

Questions people ask about Busan Sunrise Festival

See also

DaeboreumA Korean festival of the first lunar full moon, marked by fires, wishes and feastsKorean New YearA three-day Korean festival celebrating the lunisolar new year with family and feastsGutSacred rites of song, dance, and spirit communion performed by Korean shamansGanggangsullaeA Korean harvest dance where women hold hands and sing in circles under the full moon

Good reading and sources

• Busan Sunrise Festival on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-09.