SEOUL, South Korea — Halloween celebrations in South Korea were subdued on Saturday, Oct. 28, 2023, the eve of the first anniversary of a harrowing crowd surge that killed about 160 people in a Seoul alleyway.
Many restaurants, bars, department stores and amusement parks avoided Halloween-themed events this year as a sign of respect for the victims. Few people clad in Halloween costumes were seen Saturday in Seoul’s popular Itaewon neighborhood, where revelers fell on each other like dominos as a large number of people crammed into the narrow, sloping alley.
Post-it notes with condolence messages such as “We won’t forget you forever” or “Sorry. Please, rest in peace” plastered the walls of the site. A mourning station established in central Seoul received many visitors, who laid white flowers and burned incense in front of photos of the victims.
Bereaved families are to hold a formal memorial service on Sunday, Oct. 29.
In Seoul’s Hongdae area, another entertainment zone, there were only a small number of people wearing Halloween outfits. There were no reports of any safety-related incidents across South Korea by early Sunday.
Authorities have deployed thousands of police, emergency and other officials since Friday, Oct. 27 for crowd control and safety of pedestrians in Itaewon and 15 other major nightlife districts in Seoul. About 200 police officers were separately mobilized to monitor narcotics use and violent crime, according to Seoul police.
In January, a police special investigation team concluded that police and municipal officials failed to work out effective crowd control steps despite correctly anticipating a huge number of people in Itaewon. Investigators also concluded that police had ignored hotline calls by pedestrians who warned of swelling crowds before the surge turned deadly.
The Itaewon crush caused a nationwide outpouring of grief as the dead were mostly in their 20s and 30s. There was also anger that the government again ignored safety and regulatory issues despite the lessons learned since the 2014 sinking of the ferry Sewol, which killed 304 people — mostly teenagers on a school trip.