It's Hangul Proclamation Day!
I didn't plan for it to be Hangul Proclamation Day the day after I began Word Wednesday, but it happened that way.
Anyway, in 1446, King Sejong the Great (probably, my favorite monarch...as he was a man of the people) decided, "Hey, y'all, I've invented a writing system, so let's all use it."
I paraphrased that.
But, Sejong and a team of scholars did set to work developing Hangul (in it earliest incarnation) for the Korean people to use. Before Hangul, Koreans used Chinese characters which, (I can attest) can be quite difficult for the common man to learn and use. Only slight (and I mean super-slight) modifications have been made to Hangul ever since (and I mean, super, super-slight, like the way a character is written).
This year, 2014, is the first year for Hangul Proclamation Day to be an official, no work or school day in Korea. Before, it has always been an "anniversary day."
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