Hangeul Day 2019: Google celebrates Korean Alphabet Day with animated Doodle

Today’s Google animated Doodle, made by Seoul-based visitor artists Yunho Lee and Kangin Kim of Studio Kimgarden to reflect a converging of Hangeul and English, celebrates Hangeul Proclamation Day in Korea. Privately known as Hangeulnal, or 한글날, it is the world’s just national holiday that honors an alphabet.

What is Hangeul Day?

The Korean Alphabet Day, known as Hangeul Day (한글날) in South Korea, and Chosŏn’gŭl Day in North Korea, is a national Korean memorial day denoting the invention and the proclamation of Hangul (한글; 조선글), the alphabet of the Korean language, by the 15th-century Korean ruler Sejong the Great. It is seen on October 9 in South Korea and on January 15 in North Korea. In 2013, Hangul Day became a national holiday in South Korea.

In South Korea, the holiday is called Hangeul Proclamation Day, or Hangeul Day for short, and is praised on October 9 to celebrate the promulgation of the Hunminjeongeum on October 9, 1446.

In North Korea, the holiday is called Chosŏn’gŭl Day and is commended on January 15 to celebrate the declaration of the formation of the Hunminjeongeum on January 15, 1444.

Designed during the 1440s by a royal committee gathered by King Sejong the Great, Hangeul would change Korean society in a major manner. Koreans once utilized Chinese characters, and the writing system was complicated that access to education was bound to society’s elite. Hangeul was intended to be anything but difficult to learn. Consonants are drawn to impersonate the shape of the mouth when making a specific sound while vowels depend on combinations of three elements: a dot symbolizing the sun in the sky, a line symbolizing a person, and a horizontal line symbolizing the earth.

Because of these enhancements, literacy rates expanded all through Korea. Regardless of some resistance—a 16th-century king really restricted Hangeul for an opportunity to protect the status of the exclusive class—the language developed in notoriety. Today, Hangeul is Korea’s official written language, with a national holiday in its respect.

Numerous celebrate observe Hangeul Day by visiting the museum of King Sejong which is situated close to Gyeongbok Palace in Seoul. A huge golden statue of King Sejong remains there to pay tribute to a leader associated with his commitments to education for all.