Over 2,500 Couples Get Married In Stadium In South Korea And Alot Of Them Just Met 2 Days Before The Wedding Ceremony.

Dressed in gleaming white with the men in sharp black suits, they were part of only the second 'cosmic blessing' by South Korea's famous Unitarian Church since the death of its leader, divisive self-proclaimed messiah Sun Myung Moon, in September 2012. Some of the couples had only just met two days before the grand wedding.



                          Alot Of The Couples Didnt Speak The Same Language

                    The couples would have to abstain from sex for 40 days and 40 nights
  The period of abstinence is supposed to be an echo of Jesus's 40 days and nights wandering the desert, where the Bible says he remained in the wilderness as the devil appeared to him and offered him a string of temptations, all of which he ignored. A highly controversial figure accused of leading a cult, Reverend Moon founded his church in 1954 and began holding the mass 'blessings' soon afterwards, which grew to global prominence as he gained followers around the world. The first ceremony in 1961 attracted just 33 couples, but they soon expanded. In one such mass blessing in 1997, 30,000 couples tied the knot in Washington D.C. Just two years later 21,000 filled the Olympic Stadium in Seoul. Rev Moon died in September 2012 at the age of 92 of complications from pneumonia, and today's ceremony - as with another with 3,500 couples this time last year - was overseen by his 71-year-old widow Hak Ja Hang. Some of the couples were already married and were reaffirming their vows, while others had been engaged for some time.

For some, however, cold feet would be a real danger - as they would have met their partners just days before. Some 140 people from 10 countries who were born into the church - 43 men and 97 women - gathered at a camp near the venue last week for a 'matching ceremony' to meet their new partners for the first time. The newlyweds-to-be, five of whom were from America, went to classes and lectures alongside each other before putting on their wedding clothes after lunch and waiting for the 'True Mother' - Rev Moon's widow - to appear and match them up with each other. Hak Ja Hang began matching the oldest candidates, working her way down to the youngest. The church's American website said: 'After the matches were confirmed, it was a joy to watch the new couples converse happily with one another, many of them with the help of a translator.'
DM.