By Xu Aiying and Kim Young Shin
Seoul l May 15, 2018

The National Hangeul Museum hosted the “Sejong, Together With the People” event on May 15 to celebrate the 621st birthday and 600th anniversary of the coronation of King Sejong the Great (세종대왕, 世宗大王) (1397-1450), the Joseon monarch who oversaw the creation and propagation of the Hangeul alphabet.

People celebrated the king in their own ways. A calligrapher wrote down some Korean phrases in a decorative font after asking for visitor requests, and children tried woodblock printing passages from the “Hunminjeongeum,” the royal text that explains the design of the Hangeul letters, and from the "Yongbieocheonga" (용비어천가, 龍飛御天歌), the first actual work written using Hangeul writing.

The museum also provided lectures and performances related to the king and his achievements.

One lecture focused on the care he had for the people, as portrayed in various scientific inventions he oversaw and in the traditional gugak music concert that was included in the explanation of those inventions. The museum showed an animated film that conveyed the story of Sejong the Great rising to the throne, and the way in which he oversaw the creation of the Hangeul alphabet, and a documentary film that showed the research into astrology and agriculture that took place under his reign.

“The museum introduced the king in many ways to commemorate the 621st birthday of Sejong the Great,” said a museum official. “It means a lot to pay high tribute to the great teacher of the nation.”



The National Gugak Center also celebrates the 600th anniversary of the coronation of Sejong hte Great by staging the musical performance "Sound of the Heaven, Music of King Sejong" from May 23 to 26.

The performance reenacts a royal banquet that was given to aristocrats on Lunar New Year’s Day in 1433. Such banquets were held every Lunar New Year’s Day and on Dongji, the winter solstice, just like a modern corporation would kick-off and end the business year with certain formal meetings and ceremonies.

“This performance shares the cultural heritage of Sejong the Great, who tried to practice the idea of a true 'cultural' nation,” said the director of the show. “At this historic moment of South and North Korea coming together and opening a new chapter of history, I’d like all of us to think about the king’s treasured values, such as loving the nation, to be with the people, communication and coexistence.”

xuaiy@korea.kr