A Hundred Years of One Idea
In 1923, a writer named Bang Jeong-hwan looked around at the children of Korea and decided they deserved better. Not better schools or better food, though those mattered too. Something more fundamental: he wanted children to be treated as people.
During Japanese colonial rule, that was a radical idea. Children were spoken to harshly, put to work, given no day of their own.
Bang responded by changing what language meant.
The word 어린이 (eorini) already existed. Bang gave it new weight. He championed it as a term that treated children not as workers or property, but as independent people deserving dignity. He named his children’s literary magazine after it. Through that magazine, the word spread (The Korea Times).
On May 1, 1923, he helped establish the first Children’s Day, making Korea one of the earliest countries in the world to formally recognize children’s rights through a national observance (Beevago). The holiday moved to avoid overlapping with Labor Day in 1927.
As colonial rule intensified, it was eventually banned altogether. Korea’s liberation in 1945 brought it back. In 1975, it was renamed from “Boys’ Day” to Children’s Day and became an official national public holiday (IVisitKorea).
Over a hundred years later, Bang’s wish is honored every May 5th in the loudest, most joyful way possible.
What the Whole Country Does
Schools close. Parents take the day off.
Amusement parks across South Korea welcome over 100,000 visitors in a single day. Families pack into Everland, Lotte World, and E-World. Kids get gifts. There are picnics along the Han River, parades in city centers, and meals at favorite restaurants.
May is Family Month in Korea, and Children’s Day kicks it off at full volume.
For most children in South Korea, May 5th feels like a second birthday.
"For children growing up in children's homes, it can be a reminder of the day they are not having."
The Gap That Exists
Thousands of children grow up in children’s homes across South Korea as part of the country’s social welfare system.
They know what Children’s Day is. They see it on the calendar the same as everyone else. Amusement park outings cost money, though: transportation, admission, meals, staff time. Government budgets cover daily needs. Special occasions like this are often the first thing cut.
That gap is exactly what your support closes.
What We See Every Year
Having had the privilege of seeing KKOOM’s work firsthand, this is what stays with you. The moment the kids arrive at the park, some of them literally run to be first in line. There is something in that sprint that tells you everything. These are children with full school schedules, early mornings, structured days. A day with nowhere to be is genuinely rare.
Some kids ride every ride they can find. Others take their time, wandering, choosing freely. A few find a patch of shade and sit in it, which sounds like nothing until you realize that resting on a day that is entirely yours is its own kind of freedom.
Everyone gets french fries and ice cream. The snacks taste better here, eaten outside, in the middle of a day that belongs to them.
Every year around Children’s Day, KKOOM covers the charter bus, admission, meals, and snacks for children at the homes we support. No partial days. No scaled-back versions. The same kind of day every other kid in Korea is having.
How You Can Help This May
Every donation this month is matched up to $2,500. The gift you make today is doubled before it reaches a single child.
Bang Jeong-hwan’s slogan for that very first Children’s Day was: “Let’s save hope, let’s save tomorrow” (Linguasia). A century later, that is still the work.
You are part of it.
어린이날 축하해요! Happy Children’s Day. 💚
