New Year Bells Ring In Churches In Islamic Iran

Tehran, Jan 1, IRNA – 2013 New Year's Eve celebrations were marked at Iranian churches with the simultaneous happy ringing of the bells here Monday at midnight most jubilantly. According to the IRNA night service, in one such celebration held at the beginning of the new Christian year, 2013, at Tehran's Saint Mary Church, also known as the Saint Serkis Church, the dear Iranian Armenian Christians gathered for the New Year celebrations. The ceremony began on the first seconds of the Tuesday morning with the happy ringing of the church bells, followed by the singing of Christmas songs. The keynote speaker at the ceremony was the Archbishop of the Saint Serkis Church Father Sibveh Serkisian who congratulated the beginning of the New Year after reciting some holy verses from the Holy Book, the Bible, and then he prayed for international peace and the happiness of the souls of the bygone folks. The Iranian Christians, along with the Christians around the globe, celebrate Christmas from December 25th to January the 6th, which mark two different narrations about the auspicious birth anniversary of Messiah, Jesus Christ (P), including the beginning of the New Year. Iranian First Vice-President Mohammad Reza Rahimi congratulated the entire world Christians on Jesus Christ's birth anniversary and the beginning of the new Christian year. In separate messages to his Christian counterparts in different countries on Tuesday, Rahimi felicitated the beginning of the year 2013 to the Christian governments and nations. He also expressed the hope that the New Year would cause promotion of justice, kindness, welfare and security for all, and that cruelty and discrimination would be uprooted across the world./end