Singles mark holiday together

[Anchor]

This Lunar New Year holiday, many single-person households are unable to spend time with their families for various reasons.

To address this, local governments have organized various events for them.

Reporter Lee Soo-min visited the scene where these individuals, though alone, are not lonely as they celebrate the holiday.

[Report]

People gathered in front of cooking utensils wearing aprons.

They are making colorful skewers with various ingredients and also frying mung bean pancakes.

["If it's still soft like this, it means it's not cooked yet. In that case, you can poke it like this...."]

Single-person households living nearby are participating in the event organized by the local government, feeling the festive atmosphere for the first time in a while.

[Park Joo-hwi/Seocho-gu, Seoul: "I usually find it hard to make pancakes when I'm alone, but through this program, I was able to make delicious food for the holiday, which was great."]

["Wow!!!!!"]

During the holidays, traditional games played together are a must.

["Five! Six! Seven! Eight!"]

Though they are usually alone, forming teams and cheering each other on makes them not envy the noisy family gatherings.

[Yoo Jae-ok/Gwangjin-gu, Seoul: "I played the traditional game of ttakji, which reminded me of my childhood. I also got to meet new people, and since we were on the same team, we cheered each other on while playing the game...."]

As of March last year, there are about 2 million single-person households in Seoul.

There is a high interest among single-person households of all ages in the holiday events organized by local governments.

[Kim Tae-jun/Head of Gwangjin-gu Single-Person Household Support Center: "We gathered together to play traditional games like jegichagi and yutnori, and we also ate tteokguk, a traditional dish for the Lunar New Year. We had an opening for 36 participants, but 56 people applied...."]

Four out of ten households nationwide are single-person households.

Instead of the large family gatherings that come to mind during the holidays, it seems that new holiday scenes for single-person households will also increase.

This is KBS News, Lee Soo-min.