1. Children should be raised in a sound, loving environment.
2. Children should learn to inherit our proud culture, recreate it and spread it out wide.
3. Children are our hope and future. Children should be raised as proud sons and daughters of this nation and as world citizens to contribute to world peace.

= Excerpt from Korean Children's Charter =

This is a story of a man who defied old convention and gave all his worth to uplift the spirit of youth in a seemingly hopeless country at the time, muddled with war, poverty and ignorance.

Bang Jeong-hwan was born in Seoul in 1899, during the confusing times of the country. The King was powerless against foreign intervention and old values continued to be defied by followers of Western ways. His first shock of Western-style reform came at age seven, when he was forced to cut off his long hair before entering a modern school.

He was eleven when the country was annexed by Japan in 1910. Forced to drop out of high school because of heavy tuition, his first job was to record deeds for Japanese interests gobbling up Korean land under the Government General of Joseon – a Japanese organ that ruled Korea until the end of the World War II.

Having no pride for the only job offered to him at the time, he resorted to reading and forming discussion groups with friends in hopes of retaining national dignity. In 1917, Bang was finally given a chance to assert his potential as Son Byung-hee, the head of the indigenous religion Cheongdogyo, recognized his talent. Son made him his son-in-law and a leader of young men's gathering within Cheongdogyo.



Two years later in 1919, Bang joined Son and other religious leaders' grand scheme to organize a nationwide march to promote Korea's desire for sovereignty peacefully to the world. The March 1st Movement, as it was later known, turned out a complete disaster instead. All 33 religious leaders were put in prison and a great number of innocent people were massacred for months.

Bang didn't give up however. He persuaded his colleagues to help him publish the Dongnip Shimmun (Independence Newspaper). Bang came close to being arrested for publishing the paper but was released after a week of torture as police failed to find the evidence. He had dumped all the printers and newspaper materials down a well when he learned his arrest was imminent.

By then, Bang had to admit it would take some time before Korea could free itself from Japan. “We're too weak,” he admitted. “Who will bring the liberation of the nation, then?” And the answer came to him: the next generation.

Bang, the dream weaver for kids

In 1920 he became a philosophy major at Toyo University in Japan, where he immersed himself in the study of children's art and literature. In 1921, he devised a proper term for the children "Eorini" (the "Young Ones") to replace the existing inferior terms of addressing children at home such as” kid” or “offspring.” He compiled a children's classic “Gift of Love” composed of various translations and re-adaptations of Western fairy tales and some original works.



On May 1st, 1922, the nation's first Children's Day was declared by the Cheondogyo organization to promote children's rights and pass on the spirit of the March 1st Movement. Some 1,000 people attended the function. Bang distributed 120,000 pamphlets that called for people to become respectful to children. “Be gentle with children when you address them and use honorifics,” said one of the writings. It was a foreign concept in a country that considered children as part of parents' property.

In 1923, Bang and eight colleagues organized Saekdong-hoe (the Association of Colorful Stripes) after the traditional colorful jacket worn by Korean children. "Be a brave and genuine child and love and help each other" – that was the motto for children. Saekdong-hoe came to stand at the center of various activities for children opening discussion groups, lectures, poem recitals and other cultural activities.

A declaration of children's rights was released by the Dong-A Ilbo in 1924; (1) Release all children from past pressures so that they may be treated with respect. (2) Free children from financial burden so that no children under age 14 takes part in forced labor. (3) Create a family and a social system that allows children to learn and play happily.

The world art exhibition for children headed by Bang in 1928 was especially popular, drawing over 30,000 people. It took Bang four years to organize the whole event, boosted by the help of overseas Koreans and occasionally baffled by interruptions from Japanese authority.

There were, of course, other great educators during colonial times, including American missionaries that tried to help young people in need. What really set Bang apart from them was his focus to uplift children's spirits. He used fantasy stories, poems and narrative pantomimes to bring laughter all around. One child reportedly urinated in his rubber shoe rather than go off to the toilet and miss a single detail. And even a Japanese officer ordered to keep an eye on Bang would hold his breathe in anticipation when stories began.

In 1928, Bang left the youth movement he launched after realizing the gathering was increasingly following leftist ideology. The discord within Cheondogyo too left him on his own to take the path solely as a story teller and a lecturer. One thing he'd never give up was the children's monthly magazine "Eorini" which he'd pass out freely to children if the sales were low. The final blow came when the publishing company for Eorini closed, leaving him to do all the work for putting out the magazine and pushing him further into a debt.

In 1931, he collapsed in the middle of a story telling performance. "Please take good care of our children," he said to his colleagues before drawing his last breathe at age 32.

For a while, all seemed lost. Under the order of the Japanese government, Bang's beloved Eorini magazine ceased to be in 1934, and Children's Day itself ended in 1938. Both the magazine and Children's Day were resurrected a year after Japan's retreat in 1946. Children's Day, which was originally on May 1, took place on the first Sunday of May that year which happened to be May 5th. Since then May 5th became the fixed date. Children's Day was designated an official national holiday in 1975.

Saekdong-hoe too survived and continues to go on as Korea's oldest organization dedicated to children's welfare and recreational activities.

We still need Children's Day!


Does Korea still need a Children's Day in the 21st century? This was the question posed by the government a few years back, thinking there are already too many holidays in Korea since the launch of the five-day workweek.

But whenever this kind of discussion flares up, the kids' corner of Cheong Wa Dae's homepage is covered with hundreds of protest postings. Web portals and children's organizations launch signature campaigns opposed to the idea, and some children even write to the government themselves – how could you, Mr. President?

They argue they are already stressed by homework and tests that usually spoil their weekend. They accuse the government of tarnishing a historical day set up by a great patriot. And finally they threaten that they might no longer remember the story teller. Back when Bang's funeral took place, it was children who didn't want to let his coffin go. More then half a century later, children still don't want to let go of his dream.