An ad for the 2017 Seoul Bit Chorong (Lantern) Festival to take place from Nov. 3-19.

Seoul Bit Chorong (Lantern) Festival, which attracted more than 3 million people annually for the past three years, will be held from Nov. 3-19 along Cheonggye Stream that flows through downtown Seoul.

The lantern festival is billed as the 2017 Seoul Lantern Festival. It will borrow from the main theme of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics as seen through the lights in Seoul. It asks participants to make a “wish lantern” for the participants of the global sports event in Korea in PyeongChang, Gangwon Province where the sceneries of the surrounding hills are out of this world so breathtaking.

The wish lanterns will be sold both off and online at such places as Naver.com, wemep, timon, and G Market, and will be available in a variety of kinds including chorong lanterns, lucky pocket lanterns and heart lanterns to give viewers a wide selection.

Those who want to buy a lantern before the event kicks off next month are invited to send their “wishes” via emails to the 2017 Seoul Lantern Festival. 

The wishes will be written on their lanterns and hung on the lower deck of Gwangkyo Bridge over the Cheonggye Stream. 

Those whose wishes are written on lanterns they bought will be given the rights to participate in a draw for coupons, with prizes including free airline tickets for four to visit southeast Asia, Jeju Island, free stays at hotels on Jeju Island, mobile photo printers, among others. Those who want to participate in the draws should indicate so in their emails.

Also, those who want to buy wish lanterns before the festival gets rolling will be eligible for a discount of 15 percent. Lanterns should be bought at official festival sites only.

The lantern festival will be hosted with help from Seoul Tourism Marketing and Seoul City, Gangwon Provincial administration and the 2017 PyoenChang Winter Olympics Organizing Committee. At the festival, lights will represent the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang in various colorful combinations to represent 21 themes of the global sports extravaganza, including figure skating, short track speed skating, bobsledding, and ski jumping, plus six events from the Paralymics.

The lantern events will take place from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. every day during the festival, which will be open to all free of charges.

 The event will have five major themes, with the first dedicated to holding the festival lantern, the second being lanterns for public organizations and business firms, the third representing lanterns for local autonomous organizations, the fourth representing lanterns for characters, and the fifth for authors. The homepage is available in Korean, English, Chinese and Japanese. 

Art works showing traditional performances during the lantern festival along Cheonggye Stream in Seoul. (Photos: Seoul City)