The South Korean religious community is set to resume public meetings and services that have been on hold for nearly two months due to the novel coronavirus, after social distancing guidelines were eased. The government earlier said it will extend social distancing for two more weeks, but it has partially eased the rules, conditionally allowing churches, bars, gyms and cram schools to resume operations. The decision came as South Korea's new daily confirmed COVID-19 cases have remained under

The Cultural Corps of Korean Buddhism announced Monday that it has resumed some of its Templestay programs. The Cultural Corps of Korean Buddhism, an affiliate of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, currently operates Templestay programs at 139 temples around the country. All its programs were suspended Feb. 24 due to the COVID-19 outbreak. In line with the government’s social distancing guidelines, only Templestay programs for individual participants have reopened. Group programs rema

South Korea's state-run art and history museums, libraries and national theaters will continue to remain closed despite a recent drop in new COVID-19 cases, the culture ministry said Monday. A day earlier, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun announced the government will partly soften its social distancing guidelines, conditionally allowing churches, bars, gyms and cram schools to resume business. The decision came as South Korea's new daily confirmed coronavirus cases have remained under 20 for

The Korean Culture and Information Service on Friday posted “A Letter From Wonderland,” a video on South Korea’s response to COVID-19. “Foreign media are praising Korea’s success in battling the virus. To connect this image to the general image of Korea, we created this video, sharing our success stories and delivering a message to work together to move forward,” KOCIS official Park Byeong-gyu said in a statement. The clip can be watched on KOCIS’

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism provided an update Tuesday on the progress of efforts to assist the tourism industry as it struggles to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. Since February, the ministry has announced 21 different plans to assist the tourism industry. The government said it tried to reflect the industry’s needs when drawing up the support programs. The ministry said it had received 78 suggestions from the industry and that 59 were reflected in its programs. &ldqu

The Cultural Heritage Administration announced on Monday that it was taking part in UNESCO’s media campaign “#ShareOurHeritage.” The UNESCO campaign aims to promote world heritage to people who are unable to visit the sites due to the coronavirus pandemic. The international organization provides videos and information about world heritage sites around the world on its YouTube channel and on the website https://en.unesco.org/covid19/cultureresponse. “At this moment, 89

Several churches hold on-site services to mark important day on Christian calendar

Members of a Christian church attend an Easter service at a parking lot in southern Seoul on Sunday.  The service in the parking lot is part of efforts to stem the spread of the new coronavirus.  (khnews@heraldcorp.com)

Jongmyo is a special shrine for the deceased kings and queens of Joseon. It is the oldest extant royal Confucian shrine, according to UNESCO. In Confucianism, when a person dies, the soul is believed to be separated from the body, with the soul going up to heaven and the body returning to earth. The ancestors of modern-day Koreans thought it was important to have a place for the spirit of the deceased and a place for the body. Jongmyo, located in Jongno district, central Seoul, is adjacent

While Korea’s drive-thru testing for the novel coronavirus grabbed the attention of countries across the world, the drive-thru model is recently being applied to other sectors of life here. Customers can now pick up diverse culinary dishes through drive-thru services, minimizing the chances of virus infection while still enjoying the delicacies. Drive for galbi and samgyetang Recently, a variety of Korean dishes, from galbi -- the short ribs widely enjoyed as Korean barbecue -- to samg

Literature Translation Institute of Korea on Thursday announced that it will start a program to foster professional translators of Korean cultural content. The 12-week program will teach how to translate Korean movies and webtoons into English, Spanish and Vietnamese. The classes will begin on June 15 and around 10 students for each language will be selected. Anyone who has a bachelor’s degree with official language test scores can apply for the program. LTI Korea will accept applica

The Cultural Heritage Administration on Wednesday announced that it has created material about the site of Wolseong, also known as Moon Palace, in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, in three foreign languages -- English, Chinese, Japanese. Wolseong was a royal dwelling of the Silla Kingdom (57 B.C.-A.D. 935), and stood until the kingdom collapsed. An archaeological dig by the CHA in 2017 led to the discovery of bones of two people under the west walls of Wolseong Palace, suggesting that the

In 1979, the British band Buggles lamented that “video killed the radio star,” predicting the end of the audio era. Over 40 years later, audio content is not just surviving, they are seeing a new possibility with changes in the media environment. Podcasts are now well-established, coming to prominence overseas in the 2000s. In Korea, podcasts caught on in the early 2010s and have since been enjoying a steady growth. Podbbang, the country’s biggest podcast application with a

Local churches laid out their plans for Easter this coming Sunday after the government announced Saturday that it was extending its social distancing campaign for another two weeks. Initially, South Korean churches hoped they could normalize their activities this Monday, the day after Palm Sunday. Holy Week, the week preceding Easter, is a meaningful time in the church calendar. Nonetheless, due to COVID-19, most of Korea’s Protestant megachurches have decided to hold their Easter serv

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced Monday that its affiliated institutions -- museums, art galleries, libraries and performance venues -- will remain closed until April 19. The Culture Ministry’s announcement follows the government’s announcement on Saturday that it was extending its social distancing campaign for another two weeks. The campaign was originally scheduled to end Sunday, but the Ministry of Health and Welfare extended it to April 19 in an effort