As the bell for the Year of the Ox rang, the Chinese churches from around the world also celebrated the Chinese Lunar New Year, a traditional holiday for the Chinese.
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| Lion Dancers performed in London's Chinatown. |
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In North America, Lunar New Year’s eve fell on Sunday, so numerous churches held special worship services to welcome the holiday. After service, the congregations would gather with other church members for lunch and enjoy time of fellowship. In some churches, such as South Bay Chinese Christian Church held spring holiday night celebration, they uses event programs to welcome together the New Year.
In Europe, even though the Chinese churches were few in number, they’ve also gathered on Saturday or Sunday for spring festival gatherings. A Chinese church located in Hamburg, Germany, held a New Year’s Eve party and printed invitation cards, handing them out to all Chinese so they may enjoy together the goodness of the gospel.
In mainland China, the churches in numerous cities turned the holiday celebration into a golden opportunity to preach the gospel. At the Beijing Gan Wa Shi church, a special spring season evangelism conference was held. In Hong Kong, numerous churches published different types of pairs of lines of poetry, flyers, etc, hoping that they may use this opportunity to share the gospel with their friends and families.
Ruth Wong contributed to this report.
