Couples tie the knot in South Korea mass wedding

Couples from around the world flocked to the Cheon Shim Peace World Center this week to tie the knot with more than 7,000 of their closest friends. People came to Gapyeong, South Korea from more than 50 countries to exchange and reaffirm marriage vows in the Unification Church.



The ceremony was organized and presided over by Hak Ja Han Moon, wife of the controversial founder of the church, Reverand Sun Myung Moon, according to the Associated Press. The Unification Church is famous for mass weddings, though their popularity has spread around the world, often held in sports stadiums and major arenas.

Sun Myung Moon began organizing mass weddings in the 1960s, according to The Guardian. Many couples were personally matched by Moon, who had a preference for arranging cross-cultural marriages and required the couples to be virgins. The largest mass wedding in the world was held by the Unification Church in 2009, when Moon married 20,000 couples.