MANNAM Volunteer Association in South Korea 4: World Peace and Independence Festival of Victory

There have been many empires and colonies in the world history from even prehistoric era. Often, a nation’s desire to control other countries made people who had believed in human development through enlightenment. Accordingly, many colonial empires and colonies appeared. One day, I just wondered how many nations have Independence Day. You can check on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_day

One of countries which has Independence Day is Korea!

In Korea, Independence Day is called ‘Light Restoration (光復).’ ‘光’ is Chinese character which means ‘light.’ It is one of the most joyful holidays in Korean history ending the 35year-colonial era. In 光復, ‘light’ means culture as well as national sovereignty controlled by Japanese empire.

In MANNAM’s slogan, you can see ‘light’ on the phrase ‘When Light Meets Light There is Victory’ It means each person who can be a light for the world as volunteering, but also it means ‘culture’ as mentioned above. Accordingly, we believe creating culture is so important and doing many cultural activities and huge events with cultural performances!

MANNAM in South Korea 'World Peace and Independence Festival of Victory' celebrating 65th Independence Day in 2010. A lot of VIPs and ambassadors from 34 countries participated in this national event.

There were a lot of cultural performances and booths about not only Korean traditional culture, but also 23 international culture booths.

The most impressive and special event was laser show, using light and symbolizing Korean Light Restoration day with introducing MANNAM’s slogan.

It was meaningful work to preserve the valuable cultures and stimulate people to think about the past history and give thanks to ancestors.

How do you think of all these events?

 As mentioned before, MANNAM’s slogan includes ‘Light Meets Light,’ if ‘light’ means culture, how about helping us to meet your culture, too?