Gaecheonjeol (National Foundation Day)
Next: October 3, 2027
The day the heavens opened.
The story
Where it comes from
Gaecheonjeol, 'the day the heavens opened', celebrates the legend of Korea's beginning. In the story recorded in the 13th-century Samguk yusa, Hwanung came down from heaven to Mount Taebaek, and a bear that ate only mugwort and garlic in a dark cave became a woman. Their son Dangun founded Gojoseon, by tradition in 2333 BCE, on the third day of the tenth lunar month. The day was kept on the lunar date until 1949, when the new law on national holidays fixed it on 3 October.
How it's celebrated
It is a national holiday, marked by an official government ceremony. Groups who honour Dangun perform rites to heaven at old altars, most famously Chamseongdan on the summit of Mount Mani on Ganghwa Island, which legend says Dangun built. The flame for Korea's National Sports Festival is also lit at this altar.
Did you know
- Strictly, gaecheon refers to Hwanung opening the heavens, which tradition places 124 years before Dangun's founding, so the day honours both stories.
- Hwanung's founding ideal, hongik ingan, 'to broadly benefit humankind', is written into Article 2 of South Korea's Framework Act on Education.
- Koreans traditionally called October sangdal, 'the high month', when the harvest was in and offerings of new grain were made to heaven.
Coming up next
- World Animal Day · October 4, 2027
- World Teachers' Day · October 5, 2027
- International Geodiversity Day · October 6, 2027
- World Cotton Day · October 7, 2027
- Chung Yeung Festival · October 8, 2027
- The First Implanted Pacemaker · October 8, 2027