On April 5, 2026, in Seoul’s Gwanghwamun Square, thousands of people were looking up. An actor dressed in a white robe —suspended by harnesses and cables from a crane— was going to recreate the ascension of Jesus during the Easter Parade organized by the Christian Churches of Korea Union. The plan was a brief, controlled ascent. What happened was something else.
The crane did not stop where it was supposed to. The actor kept going up, and up, until the white robe shrank to a tiny dot lost in the sky over the South Korean capital. The parade was a monumental production: 40 teams, 14 biblical scenes that included the opening of the Red Sea, the Last Supper, and the resurrection. But no scene stole the show like this one.
A witness recorded it all and uploaded it to TikTok under the username @cestuj_s_yanashi. Within hours, the video had racked up thousands of comments. The most literal —and unintentional— ascension in recent history had found its audience.
