Christmas is non-existent for North Korean Christians
By 
Anna Shannon2024-12-17T12:02:00
For most Christians around the world, Christmas is a time to gather and celebrate with friends and family. But for Christians in North Korea, the most dangerous country in the world for followers of Jesus, it is a time of great danger
The season of light and celebration, December is full of joyful traditions – a frosty trip to midnight mass on Christmas eve, a delicious roast dinner, a competitive round of Monopoly which risks disrupting family peace for another year. Yet, as we light the advent candles, God invites us to remember those celebrating the good news of Jesus’ birth in secrecy and hiding.
The nativity story and festive traditions are foreign to the people of North Korea. The communist regime considers Christmas to be a Western celebration – just as it considers Christianity a Western religion - and therefore prohibits any form of its observance. As we celebrate Christmas Eve on 24 December, North Korea celebrates a different birth, that of Kim Jong Suk, the grandmother of Kim Jong-Un. Christmas is effectively a non-event.
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