The National Foundation Day is the day when a memorial service is held in commemoration of the birthday of Tangun, ancestral father of the Korean nation.
Tangun is the founder of Ancient Joson which was built in the early 30 century B.C. and existed for nearly 3,000 years.
The Korean history started with the foundation of the first state--Ancient Joson. With the establishment of Ancient Joson, 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.
Tangun was born in today's Pyongyang. His remains were discovered at the Mausoleum of King Tangun in Kangdong County of Pyongyang in Juche 82(1993).
Tangun was born and grew up when there were frequent intertribal wars for more wealth.
He distinguished himself in martial arts and gradually had a great ambition to transform and change the society.
After he became the chief of a 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.
Kim Sol Gyong, Researcher of the History Institute under the Academy of Social Sciences, says:
"The Korean nation worshipped Tangun as the ancestral father and held a memorial service for him on the National Foundation Day annually.
According to the custom, a memorial service for Tangun is held at the Mausoleum of King Tangun every year."
The memorial service for Tangun serves as an occasion of increasing the pride of the Korean nation with a long history and culture.
October 3 is the birthday of Tangun.
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