Receive the vigor of New Year's wish granting!
Hyangiram Temple, the greatest sunrise attraction spot in Korea, is one of the 4 prayer spots for the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy,
so it is said that if you pray here, many wishes will come true..
Visitors of Hyangiram Temple on the last day of December are full of wishes.
Closing a year and welcoming a new year by watching the new sunrise, they wish their earnest new year's resolution.
The first sunrise of the New Year is a medium to long for such hopes to one’s heart’s content, and we have the sunset not only in front of our eyes, but also in our hearts.
Hyangiram Temple Sunrise Festival is about praying to the rising sun, flaming like a ball of fire, with family, friends, and lovers, the thoughts in one’s hearts, no matter how different they may be. It is a festival focused solely on that one thing. Beginning with the Korean traditional music festival, the Sunrise singing contest, orchestra, candlelight ceremony, new year's countdown, Watch-night bell ringing, fireworks, dance festival, family movie festival and so on are all the New Year's Eve events.
Making the New Year's wishes with the sunrise is very sincere to Koreans. It's also similar to why moms make their wishes for their family with a bowl of water. Hyangiram Temple of Dolsando Island is one of the 4 most beautiful sunrise spots in Korea, which includes Naksansa Hongyeonam Temple of Gangwon-do Yangyang, Boriam Temple of Gyeongsangnam-do Namhae Geumsan, and Bomunam Temple of Gyeonggi-do Ganghwa.
Just like the meaning of Hyangiram Temple’s name, ‘toward the direction of the sun’, it makes the visitor’s hearts flutter in hopes of seeing the sunrise any moment as they watch the dark seas. For that reason, Hyangiram Temple Sunrise Festival that is hosted in Dolsan-eup, Impo village, where Hyangiram Temple is located in, is often visited by visitors every year, and it is famous for being a place where people come to pray for New Year’s wishes.
including Naksansa Hongyeonam Temple of Gangwon-do Yangyang, Boriam Temple of Gyeongsangnam-do Namhae Geumsan, and Bomunam Temple of Gyeonggi-do Ganghwa.
Just like the meaning of Hyangiram Temple’s name, ‘toward the direction of the sun’, it makes the visitor’s hearts flutter in hopes of seeing the sunrise any moment as they watch the dark seas. For that reason, Hyangiram Temple Sunrise Festival that is hosted in Dolsan-eup, Impo village, where Hyangiram Temple is located in, is often visited by visitors every year, and it is famous for being a place where people come to pray for New Year’s wishes.
Before the sunrise with the cold wind, the Samulnoli (Korean traditional percussion music) wakes up the dawn. After the Hyanggyojang (head) of Dolsan hyanggyo (a Confucian temple) perform the sunrise ancestral rituals, events like sunrise wish balloon launching, wish box launching, and New Year’s well-wishing remark sharing is hosted, and the sun that was long waited starts to come up. As the sun starts to rise to the sky, people’s cries of happiness never cease and the climax of the sunrise festival is reached.
he reason why Hyangiram Temple Sunrise Festival is not a mere sunrise event, but an event where our mothers’ earnest wishes and hopes are immersed in, lies here.
