Gwanghwamun has become a Mecca for Korean soccer through street celebrations during the 2002 World Cup and has reflected a five-year history of Korean soccer fans through tears at defeats and celebrations over victories.

Some 500 Red Devil members started the trend, watching a warm up match in September 1997 on giant screens set up by the Digital Chosun and Donga Ilbo, prior to the 1998 World Cup in France. On the dawn of June 21, 1998 when Korea played the Netherlands several hundreds of soccer fans broke down on the streets discouraged by the Dutch teams 5:0 win. By the 2002 World Cup co-hosted by Korea and Japan the several hundreds had increased to 2.95 million.

Red Devils founder Shin In-cheol says Gwanghwamun is the only place in the country where the supporters can cheer on the national team while watching play on five video screens. The main screens watched by the gathered crowds were the permanent ones set up by the Digital Chosun and DongA Ilbo, as they showed more vivid colors than the LED ones also set up at the crossroads. The screens, costing W10 billion to install, show clear natural colors even at noon using the power needed to run 1,300 25" TV sets.

Gwanghwamun hosted cheering rallies Korea's seven World Cup games and a triumphant 'Than You Festival' for the team at the end of the event, adding 'excitement' and 'sound' to the surroundings. The Digital Chosun Ad Team, the host of part of the festivities, placed 150 speakers around the crossroads to add to the atmosphere.

As well as Gwanghwamun, a total of 2,021 video screens at 1,868 sites nationwide attracted 21.93 million people to enjoy the 2002 World Cup. Hanseo University student Yu Ji-yeon watched all seven Korean matches at Gwanghwamun with her school friends and one day had to get to the site at 7:00am to get a seat close to the stage that was set up. After the cheering ended, she walked through Myeong-dong to Daehakro and her house in Donam-dong in a crowd of thousands of fans.

Kim Eun-jeong and her friend Hong Seon-min with their faces painted in the three colors of the national flag of Spain said it was an incomparable feeling with their whole bodies trembling with hundreds thousands of people singing the national anthem all together in downtown at night. The power of the experience of street celebrations stretched to provincial areas in Gyeonggi Province as well as downtown Seoul, spreading as a syndrome among the younger generation.

High school student Park Na-ri from Gyeonggi said she came to Gwanghwamun with of her four classmates because she did not want to miss out on the atmosphere. A thought echoed by office worker Kim Han-jo who sat down on the street at 7:00am with seven friends, saying it was worth a day off from the company for the experience.

Some students read textbooks in preparation for term exams by the City Hall Plaza, Daehakro and COEX where other giant screens were erected, while waiting for the matches to be held. High school student Lee Seon-young said she had no chance before to shout out loud and cheer, even though she had wanted to and so enjoyed cheering with her ten friends. Middle school student Kim Jun-shik commented that all he had talked about during the 2002 World Cup were soccer stories and would probably get a poor test result, though he smiled and said he was proud of his country.

Housekeeper Yun Jeong-hee said she took her young son to cheer on the streets and marveled that the cheering with people regardless of age or gender solved stress and was more significant than victory in a match. Kong Yeong-mi said she talked her cousin into going out on the street for the third place match thinking that this would be the last chance for her cousin to learn the meaning of being united with others.

A red-clad 55 year-old woman Kim Deok cheered with her younger sister, patting an empty plastic bottle said "since the match against Poland. I hopped to see the first goal scored by striker Hwang Seon-hong. It was fantastic. I tried to go out as many times as possible as a senior like me has fewer chances than the young."

Self employed Choi Dong-hoh wore the same red tee shirt as his wife on the day of the match against Turkey and wondered what life without the street celebrations would be like.

Professor Kim Ho-gi of Yonsei University assessed street celebrations as bringing out unity in the face of the prevailing selfish trend, adding that the different age groups acting as one had a significant meaning in a society divided into the generation of industrialization in their 50s, of democratization in their 30s to 40s and of individualism in their 10s and 20s. He stressed there was no need to look for political meaning in the street celebrations, because the festival was a sports fiesta, emphasizing that the spontaneity was alive as individuals expressed themselves in diverse way in a huge crowd.

Professor Kim Jeong-un at Myeongji University said the street celebrations were simply people enjoying the festival and looking for a fun, which reflects that entertainment in Korea was poor. Kim stressed the importance of people being spontaneous in going out on the street to enjoy themselves, which is different from the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

On the other hand, he said, the 'Grand Festival for the People' including a motorcade and celebrating event was less attended as were not spontaneous, but too organized.

(Choi Seung-hyun, vaidale@chosun.com )