JOIN USChristians celebrate Christmas with great pomp, gaiety
The Christians of coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Kasargod celebrated Christmas with great pomp and gaiety. Most of the churches had the grand Christmas mass at night. Bishop Rev Dr Aloysius Paul D’Souza concelebrated the grand mass at Rosario Cathedral.
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 on the eve of Christmas.
In Mangalore city - cribs at all the churches including Cathedral (Rosario), Lady of Miracles (Milagres), St Sebastin’s church (Bendoor), Holy Cross church (Kulshekar), Infant Jesus shrine (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 Our Lady of Immaculate Conception (Urwa) - seemed to be better than the other. A few churches had recreated Bethlehem - the birth place of Jesus Christ.
Though no church in Dakshina Kannada district had midnight mass, two churches in Udupi celebrated the birth of Jesus Christ during the midnight mass.
Both the churches - Mother of Sorrows in Udupi and Milagres Cathedral in Kallianpur celebrated the mass at midnight.
Meanwhile, many churches had organised sports activities and fun games for the parisheners on Wednesday.
In fact, the City is wearing a festive look for the past few days.
Be it making crib, decorating roofs / apartments 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 places in the City.
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.
Interestingly, a few people had set up cracker shops too by the roadside, which is not common during Christmas.