Posted on : Jun.24,2006 08:45 KST
Fun, camraderie ensures celebration every 4 years
Seo Gyun-yeong, 35, checked into a hotel with his friends to watch the World Cup match between South Korea and Switzerland. As the game starts at four in the morning on June 24, local time, he needs a place to sleep for a short while in order to be able to support the national team energetically. On June 13, when the national soccer team defeated Togo 2-1, he slept at a karaoke bar in Cheongdam-dong, southern Seoul. Seo, along with some 20 friends, cheered for the national football team, drinking wine and wearing red T-shirts.
"I don’t like football that much, but enjoying ourselves and making a ruckus with friends whom I can’t meet frequently give vitality to our boring daily lives. Regardless of whether South Korea wins or loses, it feels good to laugh and have fun like this," said Mr. Seo.
When South Korea and France fought for the chance to advance into Round 16 at 4 a.m. on June 19, about 1 million soccer fans, including nearly 370,000 in Seoul, cheered in the streets across the nation. The Seoul City Plaza and Gwanghwamun areas were flooded by supporters wearing red T-shirts and light-emitting ’goblin horn’ headbands who gathered from as early as the previous evening. Park Min-cheol, 26, who came to Seoul City Plaza with his girlfriend, both wearing red T-shirts, said, "I've scarcely had a chance to spend an entire evening with my girlfriend, but now I can openly enjoy a date through the night, thanks to the World Cup."
Numerous football fans who gathered at not only movie theaters relaying the football games and bars equipped with large screens, but also residential streets, could not sleep at all that night because they were supporting the national team's bid against the French. Kim Hi-gyeong, an office worker in her late 20s, said, ``After I got married, I couldn’t meet my friends as often, but I had a good time chatting with them all night after a long time.’’
Now the World Cup has clearly settled as a ’festival’ in South Korea taking place every four years. The entire nation is swept up in the heat of the World Cup and finds pleasure in the festivities. As the nationalism clinging to the South Korean team’s victory is dramatically eased as compared to what it was during the 2002 Seoul-Japan World Cup, supporters for 2006 events tend to enjoy the ’festival’ atmosphere. They share pleasure with other people and find a brief out from the drone of their daily lives.
A large number of people who cannot sleep at night due to the heat of football excitement seem to be occupying themselves in other ways. A survey conducted by convenience store chain GS 25 showed that daily condom sales rose to 1,409 on average in June, a rapid 43-percent increase from the 980 daily average in May. According to online shopping mall G Market, since the World Cup started June 9, weekly condom sales there increased to about 3,000 from 1,000.
Some observers, however, leveled that the World Cup has become a ’controlled festival’ in which giant enterprises injected a huge amount of money to commercialize the proceedings. These observers point out that large pictures hanging on downtown buildings and large displays put up in central Seoul are far from the true nature of a 'festival.' Moreover, employees of contract companies hired by large firms compete with each other to occupy the best places to cheer up front and be seen.
Choi Jun-young, spokesperson of civic group Cultural Action, noted, "Giant enterprises occupy City Hall Plaza and street cheering has become the exclusive possession of a few."
"In 2002, the citizens voluntarily became the main players and created the energy, and firms and broadcasting companies took a back seat. Now, it is just the opposite," researcher of Korea Culture & Tourism Policy Institute Kim Gyu-won said.
