Seoul Winter Festival 2026: lights and lanterns from December 11

Seoul's winter festival, renamed Seoul Winter Festival, starts December 11, 2026: lanterns at Cheonggyecheon until January 31, 2027, Seoul Light at Gwanghwamun until January 3, a Christmas market in December.

Updated 31 October 2026 · Dari team · 2 min read

Machine translation from French, being reviewed. Read the French version (reference)

Contents

The dates
The three places to remember
Hours: confirmed for Seoul Light only
What this means for you
In Dari
Sources

_Traduction automatique / Machine translation_

Seoul's big festival of lights returns in December under a new name, Seoul Winter Festival, starting December 11, 2026. The whole festival runs until January 31, 2027, but each attraction has its own dates. Here is what is confirmed, what is not yet, and how to plan an evening without freezing.

The dates

The official City of Seoul listing (Fun Seoul) gives the festival as running from December 11, 2026 to January 31, 2027, at Gwanghwamun Square and six other sites. Dates differ by attraction: Seoul Light Gwanghwamun runs from December 11 to January 3, 2027 (Fun Seoul listing 372); the Cheonggyecheon lanterns run until January 31; the Gwanghwamun market is announced for "December" (listing 361), with no confirmed end date. It was called "Seoul Winter Festa" until last year (HaniSeoul). An earlier city announcement, in March, mentioned a December 4 start: the December 11 date is the one now on the official site (The Travel Manual). The 2025 edition ran from December 12 to January 18, after a two-week extension.

The three places to remember

Seoul Lantern Festival (서울빛초롱축제), Cheonggyecheon: hanji paper lanterns and light installations along the stream, from Cheonggye Plaza to Samilgyo Bridge. Free, December 11 to January 31 (HaniSeoul, Festivals of Korea).
Seoul Light Gwanghwamun: a light show projected onto Gwanghwamun Gate, the entrance to Gyeongbokgung Palace. Free, December 11 to January 3, 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. (Fun Seoul).
Gwanghwamun Market: a European-style Christmas market on the square, with stalls of seasonal goods and hot food. Exact dates are not published ("December" on the official listing); purchases at the stalls are paid.

The program also includes a light show at the DDP, the Seoul Plaza ice rink and the New Year's bell-ringing ceremony at Bosingak. The walk between Gwanghwamun Square and Cheonggye Plaza takes a little over ten minutes.

Hours: confirmed for Seoul Light only

Only Seoul Light Gwanghwamun has official hours: 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. (Fun Seoul, listing 372). The market and lantern hours are not published yet. For reference, in 2025 the lanterns were lit from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., then until 11 p.m. from December 16. These reference points come from HaniSeoul and The Travel Manual. Check the hours on Fun Seoul a week before.

What this means for you

Do the loop in one evening: Gwanghwamun first (show, market), then Cheonggye Plaza and the stream to Samilgyo.
Dress for standing around. In December, Seoul hovers around 4 °C by day and -3 °C at night (Korea Meteorological Administration normals cited by Festivals of Korea), and Gwanghwamun Square is very exposed to the wind.
Avoid the weekend if you want to take photos: the stream banks are narrow and fill up fast. A weeknight is quieter.
Getting there: Gwanghwamun station (Line 5, Exit 5) or City Hall (Lines 1 and 2, Exit 4).
On December 31, pick a single place for midnight: last year, some subway stops were skipped and buses rerouted around the Bosingak ceremony (Seoul Eat).