National Foundation Day
Ancient Joson is the first slave state in the Korean history, which was built in the early 30th century B.C. and existed until 108 B.C.
The Korean people have commemorated the birthday of Tangun, the ancestral father of the nation, as the National Foundation Day since ancient times.
He spent his childhood and youth as the son of the chief of a tribe, Dr. Kwon Sung An, Section Chief of the History Institute under the Academy of Social Sciences, said and continued:
"Tangun trained hard martial arts including archery, spearsmanship and fencing in his childhood and youth.
In the meantime, he made efforts to understand nature and society.
He distinguished himself in martial arts and gradually had a great ambition to transform and change the society. After he became the chief of the tribe, following in the footsteps of his father, he gradually reformed and developed the primitive political mechanisms into violent ones to control antagonism between classes and between tribes.
On the basis of such social change, he founded a state for the first time with Pyongyang as its capital.
The name of the state built at that time was called Joson. It is now called Ancient Joson in order to distinguish it from the feudal Joson dynasty built afterwards."
With the establishment of Ancient Joson by Tangun, the Korean nation put an end to its long primitive ages and entered the era of statehood, the era of civilization, for the first time in the East.
This custom has been carried forward up to date and the memorial service for Tangun serves as a significant occasion of increasing the national pride among the Korean people.