Yes, that’s an advertisement for a birthday cafe for Jesus.
A new friend introduced it to us via a TikTok and when we discovered it was only a short bus ride away, we obviously had to go and find out what it was all about.
Was it a joke? Was it a cult? Was it serious but light-hearted?
For those unfamiliar with a birthday cafe, usually a fan or group of fans will set up an event at a cafe to honor a kpop idol’s birthday. Cup sleeves and paper cups will be designed to be given away with purchase of a drink or a set featuring a cookie and drink, and there’s usually lots of goodies to be had, such as fanmade photocards, mini posters, keychains, calendars, etc. They’re quite popular and some idols can have over 50+ birthday cafes the week of their birthday–all which they, themselves, have had nothing to do with!
For fans, they’re a great way to meet up with other fans, make new friends, and snag cute, unique goodies. This year I wasn’t able to grab a ticket to Onew’s official birthday party, but instead of moping around, I went with my friend to a couple of birthday cafes in the hopping Hongdae area, where a lot of cafe events take place.
You can click this link to see a list of the birthday cafes I’ve gone to so far.
When we walked up, there was a line going up and down the staircase to the basement where the cafe was. My friend went and reserved us a spot, which was in an hour’s time (!) so we walked over to 7-11 and hung out for a little bit before coming back to wait around the cafe with the crowd. One thing I will note is that the ipad for reserving a spot was all the way down in the cafe and was annoying to get to with all the people waiting on the stairs, and I wish there would have been some way to have people register on the ipad at the street level.
Apparently, the Jesus birthday cafe has been going on for a few years and yes, it is serious but light-hearted. When it was our turn to go in, we got paper wristbands, our choice of a Jesus photocard, and a small booklet featuring three missions we had to do to get stamps to redeem for a sticker and/or gelato.
The cafe felt very much like a youth group church basement. It reminded me of the space we held a memorial for my friend and co-worker, which was the basement of a church-owned cafe that catered to young people. A movie about Jesus was playing silently in the background, and the “Jesus” promoted on all of the materials was the same Jesus as in the movie.
It was actually a decently sized cafe spot, bigger than some of the birthday cafes that I’ve visited for other, ahem, idols. There was a table with various items for sale like enamel pins, stickers, and even mugs, as well as a Christmas tree made out of the traditional birthday cafe paper cups.
The highlight of the cafe’s decorations, though, was the stand-up of Jesus holding out half a heart with his hands that you could make the other half beside while taking a photo.
We sat down at our table and a guy wearing a “Happy Birthday Jesus” apron came by and handed us an English-language Christmas quiz and explained how the stamp booklet worked. If we do the quiz, we get a stamp. If we watch two short videos, we get another stamp and can then get a sticker from a gacha machine. If we post on our social media, then we can get a stamp and a small container of either vanilla or chocolate gelato.
The guy asked if we were Christian, and he explained how we use the QR code at the bottom of the quiz to check our answers. The quiz was really easy if you’ve grown up in the West in a Judeo-Christian environment. The videos were short and focused more on the spiritual side of Christianity.
Before posting to our social media, we decided to go buy drinks. The prices were similar to other birthday cafes, but the barista asked me if I was a Christian. (There was also a sign taped to the table saying that if we weren’t Christian, we’d be given a special gift.) I told her no, and she gave me a special gift that was a small glass egg-shaped trinket holder that had a slip of paper inside with a Bible verse on it. We were looking around at other tables, trying to see if there were others with the “special gift” and then we briefly discussed whether someone would lie about being a Christian if they knew they would get a special gift and how that would be kind of missing the point.
Instead of a paper cup, we got a Jesus cup sleeve, something that used to be done back in the day for birthday cafes. At some point, the culture moved from cup sleeves to actual paper cups for some reason.
When the staff discovered we weren’t Christian, we weren’t hounded at all. Looking around, some people were there for the novelty and had their own “special gifts”, and some people were there because they were Christian and were using the cafe as a space to talk about their spirituality. There was no big banner advertising a particular church, although there were some small signs about the church involved with the cafe.
There’s a strong connection between coffee and religion that I’d like to explore some day. The local coffee shop on my university’s campus was run by a church and would often hold church events, and coffee has been very controversial among religions since its discovery so long ago.
The fact that someone thought to co-opt the idol birthday cafe and make it all about Jesus’ birthday is hilarious. It’s a smart move as an attention draw, and it was light-hearted enough that a non-Christian can go and not feel uncomfortable. I enjoyed my experience, and enjoyed the “missions” we were given and think a kpop idol birthday cafe should do something similar. It was also nice to have a spot where we could talk about religion and it not be considered inappropriate, and to reflect on what spirituality means to us in a season when many religions celebrate religious experiences and events.
Koffee & Kpop 
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