Hangeul Day
Next: October 9, 2027
An alphabet made for everyone.
The story
Where it comes from
Hangeul Day celebrates the Korean alphabet. King Sejong the Great, fourth king of Joseon, completed it in 1443 so that ordinary people, who had to borrow difficult Chinese characters, could write their own language. He called it Hunminjeongeum, 'the proper sounds to instruct the people', and a book of that name explaining the letters was published in 1446. Its postface is dated to the first ten days of the ninth lunar month, which converts to 9 October. The day was a public holiday from 1949 to 1990 and became one again in 2013.
How it's celebrated
The government holds an official ceremony, and Seoul puts on exhibitions and events. Many people visit the statue of King Sejong at Gwanghwamun, with an exhibition about him beneath it, or the National Hangeul Museum and the King Sejong the Great Memorial Museum. In 2025 the winners of UNESCO's King Sejong Literacy Prize were invited to the official ceremony.
Did you know
- Sejong's alphabet had 28 letters; modern Hangeul uses 24 of them.
- The 1446 Haerye edition, which explains how each letter was designed, is kept at the Kansong Art Museum and was added to UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in 1997.
- Since 1989 UNESCO has awarded the King Sejong Literacy Prize, funded by Korea, to literacy work around the world.
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