[Press Release] GIST Holds ‘Coming-of-Age’ Ritual to Celebrate its 20^th Anniversary

GIST held the traditional coming-of-age ritual with Gwangju HyangKyo to celebrate its 20th anniversary as a reminder of its duty to “bolster Korea’s scientific and national development” as a member of Five Science & Technology Specialized Universities.

 

 

 

 

□ Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST, President   Young Joon Kim) held the traditional coming-of-age ritual with the students entering adulthood to celebrate its 20th anniversary at the outdoor stage of Oryong Hall in the morning on May 16. The ritual was held with the help of Gwangju HyangKyo and hyanggyo is a Confucian temple and school to teach local students in the Joseon Dynasty period. In Korea, May 20^th is celebrated as the Coming-of-Age Day.

  ❍ This year’s ritual is held as a reminder that GIST, which becomes an ‘adult’ as twenty years have passed since its inception, should contribute to the national development through its technological and scientific prowess and to spreading technological and scientific knowledge to the local community as one of Five Science & Technology Specialized Universities.

  ❍ In addition, this ritual is also held to provide GIST’s students entering adulthood this year with a chance to feel their duty as adults and to develop themselves as earnest people talented for technology and science through the traditional coming-of-age ritual managed by Gwangju HyangKyo.

□ The coming-of-age ritual was held at the outdoor stage of Oryong Hall from 10 a.m. for one and a half hour on May 16. Male students participating at the ritual were wearing Dopo, traditional garment (mostly worn by Confucian scholars), and topknots and female students wearing Dangui, traditional garment for ceremonial occasions, in accordance with the procedures of the Korean traditional coming-of-age ritual managed by Gwangju HyangKyo. After the ritual, local artists performed Korean traditional music concerts and students had sporting events.

  ❍ Fifty students participating in the ritual learned how to wear Dopo or Dangui and took traditional etiquette lessons such as how to perform a kowtow in a traditional way to their parents and teachers as a sign of making a fresh start as an adult.

□ Korea’s traditional coming-of-age ritual is held on the 3^rd Monday of each May and is to remind youngsters entering adulthood of their pride and duty as adults and to instill courage and self-respect into them. It started when Gwangjong of Goryeo, at the 16^th year of his reign, gave the formal attire for those who became adults to his Crown Prince Yu.

  ❍ During the traditional coming-of-age ritual, males wear topknots and gat, Korean traditional hat, (which is called Guan Ryae), and females wear their hair in a bun, Jokduri, a traditional coronet, and binyeo, a traditional ornamental hairpin (which is called Gyae Ryae). In the past, males after the ritual no more used their childhood name, had their own name and pen name, were entitled to get married, and could get employed by the government.

  ❍ Nowadays, being an adult means being permitted to vote, drive, drink alcohol, and smoke. This also means being a person of legal capacity under the civil law; therefore an adult can get married and be adopted into another family without the consent of the person with parental rights.