Photos courtesy of AP and AFP
Thousands of Unification Church members were married in a mass wedding in South Korea on February 12 — only the second such event since the death of their messiah and controversial church founder Sun Myung Moon.
Read the following story from the Bangkok Post to learn more about this mass wedding event.
About 2,500 identically-dressed couples — many of mixed nationalities who had met just days before — took part in the ceremony at the church’s global headquarters in Gapyeong, east of the capital Seoul.
Mass weddings, some held in giant sports stadiums with tens of thousands of couples, have long been a signature feature of the Unification Church and one that critics have pointed to as evidence of cult underpinnings.
MASS MARRIAGES
Church founder Moon died in September 2012, aged 92, and his 71-year-old widow Hak Ja-han presided over the recent ceremony.
The church’s mass weddings began in the early 1960s. At first, they involved just a few dozen couples but the numbers grew over the years.
In 1997, 30,000 couples tied the knot in Washington, and two years later around 21,000 filled the Olympic Stadium in Seoul.
Nearly all were personally matched by Moon, who believed that romantic love led to sexual promiscuity, mismatched couples and dysfunctional societies.
Many were married just hours after meeting for the first time, and Moon’s preference for cross-cultural, international marriages meant that they often shared no common language.
SHORT ENGAGEMENT
In recent years, matchmaking responsibilities have shifted towards parents, but many of the church members married on February 12 had chosen to be paired off a few days before at an engagement ceremony presided over by Moon’s widow.
Those who choose to be matched by the church must confirm under oath that they are virgins, and after their wedding the couple must refrain from sexual relations for a minimum of 40 days.
Exercises
Read the story and decide whether the following statements are true of false.
1. The church’s mass weddings began in the early 1960s.
……………………
2. About 25,000 couples took part in the mass wedding on February 12.
……………………
3. The church founder died in the 1960s.
……………………
4. The church’s global headquarters is located in Gapyeong.
……………………
Vocabulary
- messiah (n): a leader who people believe will solve the problems of a country or the world
controversial (adj): causing a lot of angry public discussion and disagreement
cult (n): a small group of people who have extreme religious beliefs and who are not part of any established religion
underpinning (n): the support or basis on which an argument, claim, etc. is made
promiscuity (n): the fact of having many sexual partners
dysfunctional (adj): not working in a successful way
oath (n): a formal promise to do something
Idiom
tie the knot: to get married
