3500 couples in South Korea tie the knot in mass wedding

18 February, 2013

Sun Myung Moon, the self proclaimed 'messiah' died at the age of 92, and thousands of the Unification Church tied the knot for the first time after their leader's death. The ceremony that took place on Sunday in Gapyeong, east of the capital Seoul hosted 3500 identically dressed coupled for the wedding ceremony, and according to yahoo.com, around 12,000 couples took part in the wedding over the Internet.

The Unification Church gets the attention of the world media due to these weddings, which is also known as the 'blessings’. Normally all the matches are made by the Church, which was initially made by Moon who taught everyone that romantic love was the way to sexual promiscuity, which evidently led to mismatched couples and dysfunctional societies.

Many of the couples, who got married in the elaborate affair met just hours before the wedding. Hailing from different ethnic backgrounds, many did not even know the partner's language. However, people who believe in the Church do not feel that language is such a big issue. Moon's widow, Hak Ja Han presided over the event for the first time and it was held at the same place where Moon's funeral took place on September 15.

Although the church has followers all over the world, the critics feel that the church members have been brainwashed by Moon. On the other hand, Moon saw himself as Jesus and the Unification Church is based on the teachings of Bible with new interpretations.