By Knut Holdhus
Large wedding held as part of celebration of Father and Mother Moon’s own Holy Wedding in 1960
A large wedding for 2100 couples took place 24th April 2024, with the main event in Hyojeong Cultural Center in Gapyeong, northeast of the South Korean capital Seoul. The large ceremony was officiated by Mother Moon on the same day as her and her late husband Father Moon’s 64th Holy Wedding anniversary was celebrated.
Mother Moon, Hak Ja Han, opened this latest mass wedding ceremony she and her husband are so famous for, by sprinkling holy water on representative brides and grooms on the stage. The 13 couples on stage were standing arm in arm with the bride holding a flower bouquet in her right hand. Attendants sprinkled the water on the other couples in the hall.
The master of ceremony pointed out,
“The holy water ceremony is an important ritual through which you cleanse your past life and are reborn anew. […] It is the True Parents’ hope that you all grow to become […] treasured families of our Heavenly Parent.”
The 2100 couples who received the marriage blessing came from 16 countries. 500 couples took part in the ceremony in Gapyeong, the other 1600 couples participated in smaller ceremonies around the world.
Everyone was then asked to affirm the Blessing vows read out by Mother Moon. All the couples shouted a loud yes after she had finished reading,
“As a family with the responsibility to fulfill the perfected families envisioned by our Heavenly Parent in the beginning, do you promise to become couples for eternity, continue the traditions established by the True Parents and form ideal families that seek the realization of God’s kingdom.”
It was then time for the couples to exchange their blessing rings. Again, 13 representative couples come up on stage. Mother Moon and two assistants presented the rings to those couples.
All the brides and grooms both on stage and in the hall faced each other. The groom placed the ring on the ring-finger of the bride, before she placed the groom’s ring on his finger. The rings symbolize the eternal and the couple’s eternal love.
Mother Moon then proclaimed,
“I proclaim in front of heaven and earth that the holy marriage of the couples participating in this cosmic blessing ceremony officiated by the True Parents of heaven, earth and humankind, have been established through the grace of the Heavenly Parent and the True Parents of heaven, earth and humankind.”
Then followed the blessing prayer by Mother Moon.
She prayed that all the 2100 couples taking part throughout the world would be like pure water and become the precious and ideal men and women that our Heavenly Parent had envisioned at the beginning of the creation. She asked that such “pure water” would continue to grow and spread throughout the world, across the oceans and all continents.
She prayed that the couples would praise and glorify our Heavenly Parent based on the victorious foundation laid by the True Parents.
“All the blessed couples who received the blessing today are the ones who are realizing Heavenly Parent’s dream,“ she said. “May they give birth to many pure children.”
She asked also God that all the people around the globe would hear about this great Blessing and news and join in.
She prayed that all the difficult things – all the chaos that is happening across the globe, all the conflicts that have been caused by the ignorance of the fallen humankind, and that give such pain to our precious earth and create environmental problems, and also all the natural disasters as well as diseases – would no longer threaten the life of the blessed families.
And with such a protective blessing, she asked God that the blessed families would work towards restoring the earth to its original healthy state and work to create an ideal world and happy families that would give joy to our Heavenly Parent and realize God’s dream here on the earth.
After the prayer, flowers and gifts were offered to Mother Moon by representative couples.
The ceremonial part of the program was followed by a special performance by a couple who themselves 14 years ago had participated in one of the marriage blessing ceremonies of the Family Federation – Korean singer Aeri Park and her husband and hip-hop dancer and singer Poppin Hyunjoon.
Text: Knut Holdhus, written based on live transmission via PeaceTV. The words of Mother Moon referred to and quoted are an unofficial version based on the simultaneous translation into English.
Featured image above: Mother Moon, Hak Ja Han, sprinkling holy water on couples 24th April 2024.