Bengaluru: Christmas celebrated with great fervour

The city marked Christmas on Wednesday with midnight church services, prayers and celebrations, with the Central Business District (CBD) appearing bright and colourful.

Prominent churches like Shivajinagar’s St Mary’s Basilica, St Mark’s Cathedral, Chamarajpet’s St Joseph’s Church, Lingarajapura’s Holy Ghost Church, Halasuru’s Holy Trinity Church, MG Road’s Parade Church and Hudson Circle in Corporation Road opened their doors for midnight services as the faithful thronged to offer prayers and exchange festival greetings.

The churches were illumined with bright lights and volunteers dressed as Santa Claus were seen welcoming the public. Children visiting churches were given gifts as part of the celebrations. It was quite common to see people dressed as Santa Claus being surrounded by eager kids wanting gifts.

Churches displayed well-decorated nativity scenes with mangers showing Mary and Baby Jesus, to which several devotees tied gifts. Church services also reverberated with carols describing the birth of Christ.

Prominent roads like MG Road, Commercial Street and Church Street were decorated to reflect the festive atmosphere.

Houses of people following the Christian faith marked the festival with colour lights and decorations, with some distributing greeting cards to the public.

Cake displays

Since Christmas celebrations are never complete without the sweet and melting cakes, displays of different cake varieties were seen in many areas much to the public’s delight.

The eight-foot giant cake on display at the cake festival in ground next to the Holy Ghost thrilled several visitors.

More than 50 varieties of cakes were on sale at the ground.