While some parts of the world see the 31st of October as a cue to the beginning of a season of holidays, starting from Halloween and ending with New Year’s Eve, Members Church of God International (MCGI) sets that date for a global celebration of the 29th year of their religious program, Ang Dating Daan or The Old Path.

The celebration will be hosted by Bro. Eliseo Soriano, the popular host of the program and the Presiding Minister of MCGI.  Bro. Eli is known to the public as The Only Sensible Preacher of Our Time due to his remarkable way of preaching and biblical understanding unparalleled elsewhere in the world.

For many traditional celebrators, the eve of October 31, November 1 and November 2 are known to be Halloween, All Saints Day, and All Souls Day. These are Catholic traditions that honor their saints and commemorate the souls of their dead. However, the attention of the people is in the customary Halloween where participants wear costumes for the “trick or treat” night or for Halloween parties everywhere. Thus, the essence of its origin is lost in all the commercialism.

After Halloween, the attention of the consumer-celebrators in the United States will shift to the last Thursday of November which is their annual Thanksgiving Day. In the Philippines, the peak of the holiday season is the celebration of Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve that are both Catholic traditions. All over the world, these two occasions are the peak of commercialism and overspending as well.

MCGI congregants whom Bro. Eli Soriano leads understand the commercial and consumerism trends that these holidays bring to people. Aside from this is the fact that they are taught to be aware of the origins of these holidays as inaccurate and trivial in the biblical context, thus MCGI members or Ang Dating Daan members, as they are more popularly known, do not follow these traditions.

These pieces of information can be heard often in the preaching of Bro. Eli in his program, Ang Dating Daan (The Old Path), as they are repeatedly being asked from him by listeners and viewers of the program via its segment Biblia ang Sasagot, Itanong Mo Kay Soriano (The Bible Will Answer, Ask Bro. Eli).

This segment is regarded as unique as it is not found in other religious programs on TV today: the way Bro. Eli answers the questions and the fact that his answers are always based on the Bible. In fact, he is known for the expression “Basa!” (Read), the cue for his assistants in the panel to read the verse complying with the answer.

Ang Dating Daan will celebrate its 29th year on October 31, 2009 and the anniversary presentation will be held in multiple venues in the country and in all six continents, thus regarded as a global event. The main venues will be the Araneta Coliseum in Manila and the ADD Convention Center in Pampanga in the Philippines, while regional provinces and international chapters will be able to participate through Internet streaming.

The presentation will be incorporated with the Thanksgiving that is customarily celebrated by MCGI as a weekly affair and follows the essence of the thanksgiving program in the Bible. This is what the MCGI congregants are celebrating as being preached by Bro. Eli. The event will be aired and broadcast live on UNTV37, its current home station, with live streaming on Untvweb.com, and the live streaming page of the Church’s official website at http://www.angdatingdaan.org/livestream/.

Ang Dating Daan has gained recognition from award-giving bodies abroad such as the Gawad Amerika Awards in 2006, hailing it as the Most Informative Religious Program. Its popularity extends in the World Wide Web as well. Since 2002, AngDatingDaan.org, has bagged the Most Popular Web Site Award for five consecutive years.

Through the Ang Dating Daan program, MCGI has reaped more converts across the globe, both Filipinos and non-Filipinos. Consequently, new local chapters were established in North and South America, Europe, Europe, Australia, and across Asia Pacific.

Ang Dating Daan was launched as a radio program in 1980 over DWWA and was first aired on TV with the same title through IBC 13 in 1983.