On the morning of Wednesday, Oct. 21, during Hanbok Culture Week, Gyeongbokgung Palace was filled with colorful hanbok. In front of Geunjeongmun Gate, visitors dressed in traditional jeogori jackets and skirts came and went without pause, and under the corridor lined with red pillars, people could be seen taking photos of one another. Foreign tourists in hanbok were also conspicuously numerous.
Inside the corridor, three women stood side by side to pose for a photo, while elsewhere a group in pink skirts laughed as they looked at a phone screen together. Children sat on the steps unfolding a guide map. When a visitor in a blue official robe embroidered with dragon patterns passed through the crowd, people nearby raised their cameras.
Hanbok encompasses not only the way clothing is made and worn, but also the culture of dressing properly for rituals and customs. “Hanbok life” was designated a national intangible cultural heritage in 2022, as a communal tradition passed down by the public without any single designated holder. Visitors who wear hanbok can enter Gyeongbokgung and other major palaces for free, which has made the palaces a favored setting for strolling in traditional dress.
Hanbok Culture Week, now in its ninth year, runs from Oct. 19 to 25. Centered on Hanbok Day on Oct. 21 each year, the event aims to promote the value of hanbok and spread the culture of wearing it in everyday life. More than 410 venues at home and abroad are offering experience programs, discounted admission and free entry. To mark the start of the week, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism held a launch ceremony for its “Wear Hanbok Properly” campaign at Gyeonghoeru Pavilion in Gyeongbokgung, together with 24 hanbok rental shops and 17 hanbok content creators, introducing the form of traditional hanbok and how to wear it correctly.
As more people walk slowly through the palace grounds in hanbok, it is coming to feel less like clothing displayed in a museum and more like something to be worn and lived in. The crowds of hanbok-clad visitors at Gyeongbokgung that day showed that change at work.
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