The day was declared as a public holiday by the state government and prayer and worship services were held in all the local churches of the Presbyterian and Baptist denominations.
The first Welsh missionaries - Rev. J. H. Lorrain and Rev F.W. Savidge, known to the Mizos as Pu Buanga and Sapupa, reached Sairang near Aizawl on this day in 1894 by boat from Silchar in neighbouring Assam.
Today would be the last day the Presbyterian Church, the largest one in the state, would observe the day as 'Chanchintha Thlenna Ni' after the Synod, the highest decision making body of the church last year decided to observe March 15 as 'Chanchintha Thlenna Ni' from 2014.
Rev William Williams, who landed at Changsil, on the banks of the river Tlawng on March 15, 1891 was now accepted by the Presbyterian Church as the first missionary who ever set foot on Mizoram soil and also the day as the day Christianity was brought to the Mizo people.
Rev Williams, who came to Aizawl from Changsil did not have time to convert anyone into Christianity due to the prevailing condition at that time, but spread the gospel by distributing tracts and Biblical pictures to the natives.
The Baptist Church, however, would continue to observe January 11 as the 'Missionary Day', sources in the church said.
