Welcome the Year of the Earth Dog
The Bell Church of Cagayan de Oro takes center stage in this year’s celebration of the Cagayan de Oro Chinese New Year Festival with New Year’s Eve rites and fireworks at Barangay Macasandig.
Bell Church Cagayan de Oro welcomes the eve of the Year of the Fire Rooster with a spectacular display of fireworks at Macasandig. (CIO photo by Wowel Rhoel Chaves Condeza)
The rites start at 10AM to be followed at the stroke of midnight by the traditional fireworks courtesy of Phoenix Fireworks. Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Oscar S. Moreno will once again be the honored guest of the church. He also joined the same ceremony last year.
On the morning of Friday, February 16 the Cagayan de Oro Filipino-Chinese Community headed by Hong C. See will conduct their traditional motorcade led by units of the Cagayan de Oro Volunteer Fire Brigade.
Master Elias Ng, spiritual adviser of the Bell Church in the Philippines, welcomes Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Oscar Moreno to the 2017 New Year’s Eve rites at Bell Church,Barangay Macasandig
The motorcade ends at Bell Church in Macasandig where church members will distribute tikoy to indigent members of their surrounding communities.
The 3rd edition of the Cagayan de Oro Chinese New Year Festival started last weekend 10 February 2018 with Dragon and Lion Dances at the Executive House of City Hall.
Students perform a Lion Dance during the Feb 10 kick-off of the 3rd Cagayan de Oro Chinese New Year Festival (CIO photo)
The program’s highlights was the Symphony of Lights Show which had been reprogrammed to play with traditional Chinese music and will be run nightly until February 28 marking the festival’s official ending.
Bell Church Cagayan de Oro had been earlier identified as the new center of the Bell Church’s activities last November 2017 following revelations coursed through Master Ng. Previously, the church’s traditional center had been Baguio where its first church as erected and had grown to be a major tourist attraction every Chinese New Year.
Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Oscar Moreno offers an incense stick at the Bell Church altar during the Lunar New Year’s Eve rites at Bell Church, Cagayan de Oro last year. (photo courtesy of Greg Marten Lao)
Greg Marten Lao, past president of Bell Church Cagayan de Oro, said the local church’s new status is signified by the installation of the four stone lions in front of the church’s façade.
Although the church building was again hit by floodwaters last December 22, Lao said the five gods of the Bell Church protected the people of the city, resulting in zero casualties for the potentially killer floodwaters spawned by the tropical storm.
Lady officers & members of Bell Church Cagayan de Oro lifting the lady guide to reinstall her in the altar earlier damaged by TS Vinta last Dec. 22. (RMB,NPN)
In ceremonies presided by Bell Church Spiritual Leader and Head Administrator Elias Ng last February 7, the church held a cleansing and purification ceremony to re-install the five gods of the Bell Church in their proper places at the altar after they were displaced by floodwaters spawned by Tropical Storm Vinta last Dec. 22, 2017.
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