Gwangju City Temporarily Closes Yeongnak and Mangwol Cemetery Parks During Lunar New Year Holiday

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 1st that it will temporarily close the gravesites and enshrinement facilities at Yeongnak Park and Mangwol Cemetery Park from the 11th to the 14th during the Lunar New Year holiday period.

This measure was implemented to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in response to the recent rapid increase in confirmed cases within the area.

Approximately 300,000 visitors come to pay respects at Yeongnak Park and Mangwol Cemetery Park during the holiday period every year.

Accordingly, Gwangju City plans to actively promote the use of the non-face-to-face online memorial service provided by the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s ‘e-Haneul Funeral Information System’ for those unable to visit the municipal cemeteries during the Lunar New Year holiday.

The ‘e-Haneul Funeral Information System’ online memorial service can be accessed through the city hall website and portal sites, allowing users to offer flowers, write memorial messages, set up ancestral rites tables, write memorial tablets, and share on social network services (SNS) online.

In particular, users can upload photos containing memories of the deceased and share them via social network services (SNS), enabling families, relatives, and neighbors who miss the deceased to commemorate together. For detailed information about the service, inquiries can be made to the Funeral Support Center.

According to special quarantine measures by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Yeongnak Park ritual room and bereaved family lounge will be closed during the Lunar New Year holiday, and bringing food into the municipal cemeteries is prohibited.

Furthermore, under the policy to maintain social distancing at level 2, when using the municipal cemeteries, visitors must comply with quarantine guidelines such as visiting in groups of fewer than five people, wearing masks at all times, and maintaining physical distance.

Currently, Gwangju Urban Corporation, which operates Yeongnak Park and Mangwol Cemetery Park under consignment, plans to minimize inconvenience to visitors by sending guidance text messages to bereaved families and actively promoting the information on its website and social network services (SNS).

Jung Jong-im, head of the Elderly Society Policy Division, said, “Due to the rapid spread of COVID-19, we have inevitably decided to close the Yeongnak Park Memorial Hall and Yeongnak and Mangwol Park cemeteries during the Lunar New Year holiday. We ask everyone to use the non-face-to-face online memorial service this Lunar New Year and strictly follow quarantine rules such as wearing masks and social distancing to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and bring about a swift end to the pandemic.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.