Hundreds gathered to celebrate the National Korean-American day at the Irvine Civic Center Plaza. The day was declared by U.S. Congress through H.R. 487 and S.R. 283 in 2003 and by California Assembly through H.R. 38 as January 13th, the date of which was chosen due to the date the first wave of 102 Korean immigrants left Korea in 1903.
Irvine is home to many first and second generation Koreans. “The festival is designed to share the Korean culture, customs, heritage, arts and food with the community to promote the peace and harmony among the people of diverse cultural and ethnic background, and at the same time to commemorate the Korean-American Day, which is January 13th of each year,” according to the festival committee.
The festival is sponsored by many businesses. It included Kia, Hyundai, Chase, Southern California Edison, Verizon, Kaiser Permanente, Citibank and more. There were many activities like crafts, talents contests and Tae Kwon Do. There was traditional Korean food like Korean BBQ, bibimbap and kimchi.
(아주경제 송지영 기자)
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com