Why You Can’t Miss the Jeongneung Professor Complex Garden Festival: A 15-Year Tradition
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15 homes and one daycare took part…Performances, exhibitions and hands-on events drew visitors
Residents opened the private gardens they tend at the Jeongneung Professors’ Housing Complex in Seoul’s Seongbuk District to the public for the Jeongneung Professors’ Complex Garden Festival, which drew steady crowds.
On May 10, Seongbuk District officials said the professors’ complex sits near Jeongneung, a Joseon royal tomb listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site (Historic Site No. 208). The neighborhood is a residential enclave of roughly 100 single-family homes. Each spring, residents open their front gates for two days to share their gardens with neighbors and visitors.
This year’s, 15th festival was held May 8–9, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Visitors came not only from Seongbuk but from across the country, filling quiet lanes with people touring the gardens.
Fifteen households and one daycare participated. Gardens named by residents — including Harmony Garden, Dodo-hwa Garden, Ivy Garden, Nauri Garden and the Bleeding Heart Courtyard — each offered a distinctive look that drew visitors’ attention.
Noh Jun-gyeom and his wife Bang Su-ja opened Harmony Garden, which they have cultivated for more than 50 years. With large trees and abundant blooms, the garden is known as a beautiful setting that has hosted concerts, a neighbor’s wedding and even film shoots.
Bang said, \”I began tending this garden when we first moved in. Seeing people enjoy the flowers when they bloom gives me great satisfaction. It’s meaningful that a private garden can become a place to share with others.\”
During the festival, gardens staged band performances, art exhibitions, writing contests and readings. The event also offered hands-on activities such as face painting, pet-rock and mobile-making workshops, and a flea market.
The Jeongneung Professors’ Complex Garden Festival began in 2014. Residents along Bukaksan-ro 5-gil, Arirang-ro 19-gil and Arirang-ro 19da-gil formed a group called Jeongneung Masil to lead ongoing community beautification efforts.
Kim Kyung-suk, owner of Dodo-hwa Garden and head of Jeongneung Masil, said the group once held the festival in both spring and fall but now stages it only in spring because preparing two events became too burdensome. \”I hope the gardens highlight Jeongneung’s beauty and encourage people to rethink the increasingly uniform cityscape,\” she said.
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