On the 22nd, New Year’s Day, the families of the bereaved, who celebrated their first holiday after the Itaewon disaster, jointly honored the deceased with civic groups.
The Citizens’ Countermeasures Meeting for the Itaewon Tragedy held a joint memorial service in front of the portraits of the victims at the joint memorial altar at Noksapyeong Station, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, with about 80 family members and relatives gathered. On the table, the victims, most of them in their 20s and 30s, loved pizza, beer, beef jerky, snacks, and ribs.
In the joint ceremony, the memorial prayers of the four major religions—Buddhism, Catholicism, Christianity, and Won-Buddhism—were followed by memorial addresses by the bereaved families. The bereaved family, relatives and acquaintances bowed in order in front of the portrait and shed tears as they remembered the deceased victims.
The Association of Bereaved Families of the 10/29 Itaewon Tragedy said, “It is a holiday to visit and greet the families, but the Itaewon victims have not been able to do that, so they gathered at the memorial altar like this.” Lee Jong-cheol, representative of the bereaved family council, said, “In previous years, it would have been a fun time to talk about daily life with my family, but I couldn’t, and I won’t be able to in the future.”
On this day, a joint turn was held in Jeonju, Jeonbuk. The bereaved families of the victims with connections in Jeonju prepared a joint table for the Lunar New Year at Pungnammun Square in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, and placed food in front of the portraits of the 11 deceased. The bereaved family wept in front of the portraits of their families on the ancestral table.
The 4/16 Sewol Ferry Disaster Families Council (Council) and the 4/16 Regiment also held a joint memorial service at the Sewol ferry memory space in front of the Seoul City Council in Jung-gu, Seoul. Celebrating the ninth Lunar New Year celebration since the Sewol ferry disaster, they set up a memorial service in front of the city council, where the lights were turned off due to a power outage, and commemorated the victims.
