'Rome of the East' celebrates Christmas

Most of the churches had grand mass at 7 pm, 10 pm

Most of churches had the grand Christmas mass between 7 pm and 10 pm. Rosario Cathedral too had mass at 10 pm which was led by Mangalore Bishop Rev Dr Aloysius Paul D’Souza.

Though almost all the churches in the coastal districts had started the preparations for making the crib about a month ago, the final touches were given to the crib on the eve of Christmas. In Mangalore city - cribs at all the churches including Cathedral (Rosario), Milagres, St Sebastin’s church (Bendoor), Holy Cross church (Kulshekar), Infant Jesus (Bikarnakatta), St Joseph’s Seminary (Jeppu), St Rita’s church (Casia), Guardian Angel church (Angelore), St Lawrence (Bondel), Mother Theresa (Paldane), St Francis Xavier church (Bejai) and Urwa churches - seemed to be better than the other. A few churches had recreated Bethlehem - the birth place of Jesus Christ.

Meanwhile, many churches have planned to organise sports activities and fun games for the parisheners on Friday.

On the contrary, the City has been wearing a festive look for the past few days. Be it making crib, decorating roofs with Christmas stars or making ‘kuswar’ (the traditional sweets made during Christmas season which include nevryo, kideo, gulio, kokkisan, rice laddu, tukdi and of course cakes), every Catholic family was busy in one or the other way.Many wellknown bakeries made a brisk business while a number of shop owners had set up ‘temporary’ bakeries (with shamiyana covering on top) by the roadside in many a places. The modernisation has dampened the spirit of many a families as most of them preferred to purchase the ‘kuswar’ from bakeries than to prepare them at home. As a part of tradition, many Christians also exchanged the kuswar with their breathern and distributed among the non-Christians.