Hongcheon-gun in Gangwon Province will hold the first National Flower Mugunghwa Festival for seven days from Aug. 27 to Sept. 2.
The festival is designed to admire the spirit of the great teacher Nam Gung-euk, who demonstrated his love for his country during the Japanese colonial rule with a more passionate soul than anyone else. It will also promote the gun’s recognition as the center area of Mugunghwa, the national flower according to Rho Seung-chul, governor of Hongcheon-gun.
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism designated the great teacher Nam (1863∼1939), an independence movement leader and educator, the creator of the Hwangsung newspaper and leader of the Mugunghwa distribution movement, as a cultural person in January 2000.
“We plan to develop the event into a nationwide festival reflecting the love and passion for Mugunghwa. At the same time, we hope to enhance the Hongcheon-gun image and activate the regional economy through the festival,” said Rho. “To this end, we will arrange a place that can attract pan-national interest and concern with the subject of Mugunghwa. Related to this, we will build basic facilities to create festive mood for the Mugunghwa festival," he said.
Along with this, Hongcheon-gun plans to activate the regional economy by attracting more tourists to the region and sales of special products during the festival period. Hongcheon-gun, a mid-mountain region located in the central inland area of the Taebaek mountain range, is a beautiful and clean district with a succession of clear & blue mountains, streams and creeks.
“At the same time, we will create infrastructure to hold the Mugunghwa world festival featuring each country’s national flower in the future,” said the county governor.
As a pre-publicity event, Hongcheon-gun will organize the “Taegeuk Love, Country Love, Mugunghwa Fashion Show” at the Gwanghwamun Plaza in Seoul on Aug. 15. It hopes to attract more than 19,000 guests, including general visitors, to the event, which will be sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and Sports, Seoul City, KBS and other organizations.
Before holding an opening ceremony on Aug. 27, it will hold “the Mugunghwa One Mind Performance” event, where a large number of soldiers and residents in Hongcheon-gun are to participate.
Governor Rho will deliver an opening address and regional lawmakers will make congratulatory messages at the opening ceremony to be held at the sports complex in Hongcheon-gun. Right after the opening ceremony, the Taekwondo demonstration team of Kyunghee University will show off their high-skilled Taekwondo demonstration to spectators.
Meanwhile, a closing ceremony of the Mugunghwa festival will be held at the City Forest Park in Hongcheon-gun on Sept. 2 with attendance of a large number of guest and residents in the gun. Along with this, the national top 10 popular song show will be held in Hongcheon-gun on Aug. 27 with attendance of 18 famous singers, including woman singer Jang Yoon-jung.
The 2009 Hongcheon Mugunghwa Rock Festival will be opened at the City Forest Park on Aug. 29 where a number of rock singers, including Rock Tigers, will present popular rock songs to participants in the event. During the festival period from Aug. 27 to Sept. 2, such regional performances as B-Boy dance performance, Korea’s traditional farm music play, magic show and custom acoustic guitar performance, will be presented to those attending the events, a spokesperson of Hongcheon-gun said.
