 How Christians in China Celebrate Christmas |
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by Yan Ronghui |
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The General Board of Global Ministries, in cooperation with the China Christian Council, sponsors five theological students from the People's Republic of China for graduate and doctoral study at four theological seminaries in the United States. Ms. Yan Ronghui is enrolled in the Master of Arts in Specialized Ministry at Iliff School of Theology, Denver. She is from Hangzhou, Zhejiang province and upon return will teach at Zhejiang Theological Seminary, one of 18 Protestant seminaries in China. Below, Ms. Yan-Lily to her English-speaking friends-shares about Christmas in the churches of her home province. Christmas is a joyful time for Christians all over the world. To Christians in China, celebrating Christmas is not about keeping season traditions and rituals, but remembering the big gift of love to the world and using this opportunity to let more people know about the bright star, Jesus Christ. Christmas is a time for churches in China to evangelize, to let more people know about Christ, the true meaning of Christmas. There are six churches in my hometown all having separate worship services, musical and youth events to help spread the gospel. In my church, Sicheng Church in Hangzhou, the youth group will begin the celebration on Tuesday night before Christmas, with a well-designed evangelical meeting that gets a lot of college students involved into all kinds of activities such as greeting people, handing out bulletins and gifts at the gate, putting on some drama and plays. Each year, there's a different 'theme' about Jesus Christ, and more than 500 hundred young people will stand up at the end of service to proclaim their willingness to accept Jesus as their savior, and each will receive a free Bible as a gift of the beginning of their new journey. There is no particular candle lighting for Advent; instead Christians should live a life as the light of the world to draw people to Christ. There might be a candle light worship service in some churches at Christmas eve. But whether every attendee holds a candle usually depends on how many people come and whether the church building is safe enough to hold such kind service. There are some differences between the big city churches and small churches, and meeting points (home churches). In bigger city churches, there will be a well designed musical service with nice bulletins, just like a concert performance. Because a lot of people will come, it's hard for the church to prepare any food. While in smaller churches and home churches, each attendee gets a bag of food as a gift. In it, it might have some candy, which is a reminder of how sweet the great gift of love is to the world; some peanuts, which is a Chinese favorite symbol of a long life, and Jesus promised us eternal life; some fruits found in abundance such as oranges and apples, a reminder of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Recently, some churches put packs of instant noodles in the gift bag, in another play of words, to emphasize getting ready to meet Jesus' second coming! City churches will offer wonderful Christmas music, while smaller churches offer food. People who come to church will certainly have something special to remember, for the music that sung by Christians has different spirit; the food prepared by churches has Christian prayer for more souls added to the church. Smaller churches including meeting points begin to celebrate Christmas earlier, so that they can invite some pastors to preach there. People also travel to different churches to attend different worship services. It's not so strange for some Christians have celebrated more than one Christmas each year! It's so not so common to see the snow in most places in my province, Zhejiang province, which means I haven't had a white Christmas. It seldom rains on Christmas day, too, which is good as churches welcome a lot of visitors who begin to arrive two hours before the service. God knows we need to have a nice day to proclaim the gospel, and while a white Christmas would be wonderful, it brings trouble for people traveling a long way to church! Although Chinese Christians celebrate Christmas in a simple way, we are busy praying for the world, praying for more people to come to Christ, preparing our hearts ready to welcome Jesus who shines out as the light of the world.
Date posted: Dec 16, 2005 |
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