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Community Corner

Video: Meadowlark Botanical Gardens Welcomes Korean Bell

Gift from South Korea celebrated by officials, community in Saturday ceremony

On Saturday, the haunting, hollow sounds of a Korean bell rang across Vienna's Meadowlark Botanical Gardens for the first time.

But it wasn't just the first time such a bell rang in Vienna -- the bell is the only one of its kind in a public place in the Western Hemisphere.

The new Korean Bell Garden was celebrated by local officials, Korean cultural organizations and the greater Northern Virginia community in a ceremony on Saturday morning that included traditional costume, performance, food and dance,  and a celebration of the growing Korean community in Fairfax County and Virginia as a whole.

Find out what's happening in Viennawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"We're really fortunate [to have this]," said Hunter Mill District Supervisor Cathy Hudgins, who helped work with the City of Jongno, Korea for the project. "It becomes a conversation piece about the culture and that to me is what's really unique about Fairfax County: there are so many different cultures here, so many contribute so many unique things.  And here they have something to really be energized about."

There are two large Korean bells on the west coast, but the bell in Vienna is the first  Korean Bell Garden in a public place in the Western Hemisphere. South Korea had never commissioned one of its signature bells for another country before it began looking for a place to build a bell pavilion and garden in 2007.

Find out what's happening in Viennawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

With the help of the Korean American Cultural Committee (KACC), the country and its ambassadors formed a partnership with the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority and found a home in Vienna's Meadowlark Botanical Gardens.

The "Bell of Peace and Harmony" is cast with birds, plants and animals by one of the best makers in Korea, Meadowlark officials said, in the same way bells from the country have been cast for centuries. It stands inside a towering traditional Korean pavilion, constructed at the garden last summer by Korean master craftsmen.

Funding for the bell came from the KACC, along with the Republic of Korea and the Province of Gyeoggi. The Province of Jeju and the City of Jongno  have donated carved stones and other decorative pieces. Del. Mark Keam and Sen. Chap Petersen also introduced a bill that helped fund the project. 

"Today is just an extremely exciting and symbolic day for me, personally as a Korean-American but also as an elected official," Keam said.  "We're doing something that's very historic. I'm so proud that our nation is so open and willing to be diverse and accepting of other traditions."

Click on the video in the media player above to watch parts of the ceremony and hear from officials and cultural representatives at the ceremony..

Download the movie

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