The holiday officially launched in 1949 4 years after the country was liberated from Japanese rule (1910-1945) and Japanese was the official language during the colonial rue.
However, the holiday was excluded from the list of holidays in 1990 on the grounds that there were too many holidays, which would deal an adverse impact on national economy. Hangeul Day regained its status as a national day of celebration in 2005, but it is not a legal holiday.
On Wednesday, A group of civilian organizations devoted to the promotion of Hangeul launched a national coalition to conduct a joint campaign in Seoul to have Hangeul Day designated as a legal holiday again.
The coalition asserted that the reasons for the business circles‘ opposition to making Hangeul Day a legal holiday are groundless, since the five-day workweek introduced in
2004 did not result in any evident national economic difficulties.
(아주경제 앤드류 이 기자)
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com