The God Worshipping Society (拜上帝教) was a heterodox Christian sect founded in 1843 by Hong Xiuquan, Feng Yunshan and Hong Rengan in Hua County (花縣; present-day Huadu District, Guangdong); it soon spread to Guangxi. On the 11th day of the first lunar month of 1851, which was also Hong Xiuquan's birthday, the God Worshipping Society proclaimed the Jintian Uprising against the ruling Qing dynasty, and declared the formation of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, thus beginning the Taiping Rebellion, which has been described as the "most gigantic man-made disaster" of the nineteenth century.