Namwon City to Host the Korea Seodang Culture Festival Carrying On the Legacy of Traditional Education

14 Categories Across 3 Main Events: Kangkyung, Jesul, and Hwiho

"An Opportunity to Spread the Core Values of Character and Etiquette in Seodang Culture"

The 24th Korea Seodang Culture Festival, hosted by Jeonbuk Special Self-Governing Province and Namwon City and organized by the Korea Traditional Seodang Culture Promotion Association, will be held at Namwon Love Plaza on April 11, 2026.

This large-scale cultural event aims to preserve the longstanding educational tradition of seodang culture in Korea while seeking its modern value. Under the theme of "Awaken with Sound, Compose with Words, Engrave with the Brush," the festival will feature a wide array of competitions and hands-on experiences that carry on the legacy of traditional education.

Namwon City will hold the "24th Korea Seodang Culture Festival" at Namwon Sarang Square on April 11. Provided by Namwon City

The competition will be divided into 14 categories across three main events: Kangkyung (reading), Jesul (composition), and Hwiho (calligraphy).

A total of approximately 1,500 participants, ranging from elementary, middle, and high school students to university students and the general public, will compete, with the Presidential Award and the National Assembly Speaker's Award among the top honors.

The opening ceremony, along with the preliminary rounds of Kangkyung and Hwiho and the finals for Jesul, will take place at Namwon Love Plaza on April 11. The final round and the awards ceremony will be held at Unhyeongung in Jongno-gu, Seoul on May 16.

Through this event, Namwon City hopes to spread the core values of character and etiquette upheld by traditional seodang, and to establish Namwon as a global city of manners.

An event official stated, "In an era of rapidly advancing artificial intelligence, we hope to reaffirm the value of 'humanity' through the traditional seodang methods of reciting, thinking, and writing," adding, "We wish this will serve as an opportunity to rediscover the meaning of a healthy community and relationships through holistic growth."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.