At the stroke of midnight on Jan.1, fireworks exploded over Peter Island, lighting up the sky with a display bright enough to be seen from several other New Year’s Eve parties held across the territory.

Other residents missed the display, because they were celebrating inside churches.

“This year it was a real spectacular service,” said Angelle Cameron, the public relations officer for the New Life Baptist Church. “We over the years had started migrating to a more modernised version of New Year’s Eve as opposed to old-school Old Year’s Night. This year we decided to go back to our roots: It is a Sankey singing and testimony night.

A well-attended celebration was also held at New Testament Church of God International Worship Centre, said Patricia Charles, whose husband Ishmael leads the congregation.

For the first time, there were several dance performances, including one from the church’s new step dance group, according to Ms. Charles.

“For people, it makes them feel good to be in church when the year begins,” she said. “For me it is the norm. For some people, you don’t see them again until the end of the year.”

Parties

Many residents who attended church joined revelers at parties afterwards. For example, the crowd at the Trellis Bay Market New Year’s Eve Party swelled after midnight, said Shamora Penn, an organiser.

“There was a variety of entertainment throughout the day,” she said of the celebration. “We had IPM Band, OMG and DJ Krusha. I think the excitement for us is that we have activities going on throughout the day, and it is on Tortola but still a different atmosphere.”
While organisers estimated that there were around 1,500 revelers at Trellis Bay, the largest party in the territory was at Jost Van Dyke, where boats filled much of Great Harbour and musicians and deejays performed through the night.

Attendees were entertained by the Spectrum Band VI from St. Thomas and Final Faze from Virgin Gorda. Deejays Dre from Tortola and Avalanche from St. Thomas were behind the turntable.
With all the reveling aside, New Life hopes to encourage more residents to embrace the idea of family and fellowship this year, Ms. Cameron explained.

“This year has been declared for us as The Year of the Family,” she said. “The Bible says we are all brothers and sisters in Christ because God is our father, so because of that we are going to be focusing on restoring family in the territory.”

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