The US-based United Methodist Church said it does not see homosexuality as a sin or heresy, countering the accusations leveled at the global denomination by a coalition of Korean Protestant churches. “The Bible says homosexuality is a sin and consecrating gay clergy amounts to heresy,” President Jung Seo-young of the Christian Council of Korea said in a statement Saturday, made in response to the UMC decision to lift its 40-year-old ban on ordaining gay clergy Wednesday. “The U

Social Affairs May 8, 2024

Shamanism. It resonates with Koreans -- in private. Rarely is it endorsed openly, however. Accusing someone of having acknowledged its power in any official capacity forces the person to counter the assertion, at all costs. How this plays out in real life was on vivid display last week. K-pop giant Hybe, the company behind BTS, cornered its sublabel Ador Chief Executive Min Hee-jin over plotting to take independent the lucrative subsidiary that manages popular girl group NewJeans. A shaman was i

Culture May 4, 2024

Songzio, the South Korean fashion house known for its avant-garde menswear, will open its first-ever flagship store in Seoul on Saturday. Galerie Noir marks the latest push by CEO Jay Song to cement the brand’s foothold at home and advance its international appeal. A second flagship launch is expected in Paris in August, with a third one in New York in the second half of next year. The four-story Seoul flagship, walking distance from Dosan Park in Seoul’s Gangnam-gu, is a mix of fash

Arts & Design May 3, 2024

Lantern installations illuminate Songhyeon Green Plaza, next to the main palace from the Joseon era, Gyeongbokgung, in central Seoul on Thursday. The annual Buddhist Lantern Festival runs through May 15, which is the Buddha’s Birthday holiday, at Songhyeon Green Plaza, Gwanghwamun Square, Cheonggye Plaza and around Jogyesa, the main temple of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism in downtown Seoul. (Yonhap)

Culture May 3, 2024

Green Barley Festival, Gochang The annual Green Barley Festival will run through May 12 at Hagwon Farm in Gochang County, North Jeolla Province. “Nongak,” a traditional Korean performance art, as well as classical music and jazz will be performed on the main stage set up in the middle of the vast farmland, which sits next to fields of canola flowers. Children can take part in activities like treasure hunts. Admission, including parking, is free. For more information, visit tour.g

Travel May 3, 2024

Where to draw the line separating the audience from actors in a street performance is tricky for any director. Some are wary of seeing the script derailed by indulging too much into on-the-spot impromptu interaction with spectators. But not so for Song Jae-sung. The director oversees various shows scheduled at Gyeongbokgung this week as part of the annual Seoul festival promoting five palaces from the Joseon era (1392-1910). The nine-day K-Royal Culture Festival, now in its 10th year, kicked off

People April 28, 2024

Guided Han River tours Free tours making stops at historic sites near and around the Han River will run through November. The tours will start at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. daily, with each tour lasting about two hours. Reservations need to be made five days in advance for individuals and a month in advance for groups, at visit-hangang.seoul.kr. Text messages will be sent when reservations are made or if a tour is canceled. Each tour requires at least three participants, as well as good weather with

Travel April 26, 2024

An exhibition showcasing products inspired by Hangeul, the Korean writing system, will take place at Korean Cultural Centers in 10 countries, starting with the one in Canada. A collection of over 50 items spanning jewelry, ceramics and household goods will be featured at the Special Exhibition on Korean Cultural Products in Ottawa, Ontario, from April 26 to June 28. A similar exhibition will be held in Turkey in May before exhibitions open in Germany and Mexico in June. The Special Exhibition on

Arts & Design April 24, 2024

A one-stop online platform has been launched to streamline access to thousands of old and modern maps depicting East Asia, according to a South Korean history foundation Tuesday. The East Asian Old Map Collection, a website launched by the state-run Northeast Asian History Foundation, brings together a total of 2,212 maps facilitating easier access to thousands of old maps scattered among different institutions. The maps date as far back as 1592 and users can see how various maps published later

Social Affairs April 23, 2024

Online reservations for the biannual nighttime tours of Gyeongbokgung will open on April 30 at 10 a.m. This special opportunity to take a moonlight stroll around Seoul’s main Joseon-era (1392-1910) palace will be available from May 8 to June 2, except for Mondays and Tuesdays. Tours will take place between 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. While the tours will not include guides, the palace’s gates, halls, pavilions and garden will be open to visitors. One person can buy up to four tickets at tic

Culture April 22, 2024

A group of senior South Korean Buddhist monks entered the Memorial Hall of Korean Buddhism History and Culture in Seoul one by one on Friday, the tranquil mood interrupted only by the sounds of the camera crews that had come to record the event. The solemn ceremony, presided by the Ven. Jinwoo, president of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, Korea’s largest Buddhist sect, highlighted why the gathering mattered so much. The monks and Buddhist followers took turns studying the cremated re

Culture April 19, 2024

Deoksugung musical tour A “mini-musical” and a violin-cello duo performance, along with refreshments like coffee and madeleines, will be the highlight of nighttime tours of Deoksugung, set to run from May 1-3 -- exclusively for foreign nationals. Performances will take place at the palace’s Seokjo Hall, the first Western-style stone building in Seoul built in 1910. Tours, each limited to 18 people, will take place three times a day. Reservations for the 90-minute tour are r

Travel April 19, 2024

Life in miniature Miniatures, or tiny meticulous artworks, are intuitive. No one has to be schooled about the way they should be looked at or studied. And that only puts added pressure on the artist to create a message navigating analogies and twists, without losing anyone in the process. Tatsuya Tanaka is a Japanese artist doing just that. At the IFC Mall in Seoul, the exhibit “Miniature Life” showcases over 200 miniatures spanning seven themes, including home, life and the world.

Culture April 19, 2024

An exhibition on Korean dialects kicks off Friday as part of events run by the National Hangeul Museum to mark its 10th anniversary on Hangeul Day, which falls on Oct. 9. The “On Dialects” exhibition shows collections of literary works and documents exploring efforts made to preserve different ways of speaking Korean. It runs until Oct. 13 at the museum in Yongsan-gu, central Seoul. “What makes the exhibition special is that it’s presenting some of the materials museum of

Arts & Design April 18, 2024

South Korean Buddhist monks will bring back long-sought 14th-century Buddhist relics from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, following a transfer ceremony there Tuesday. The event is the latest highlight from a deal struck in February in which the museum agreed to “donate” the sarira, or bead-shaped objects found among cremated remains of Buddhist masters. The agreement between the museum and a delegation of Cultural Heritage Administration officials and monks from the Jogye Order of K

Culture April 15, 2024