Mangalore: Christians celebrate Xmas with great pomp, gaiety

Bellevision Media Network

• Stars, carols and cribs add colour to religious fervour

Mangalore, 25 December 2010: The Christians of coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Kasargod celebrated Christmas with great pomp and gaiety. While most of the churches had the grand Christmas mass at night, a few had it at mid-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.

 

Meanwhile, many churches have organised sports activities and fun games for the parisheners on Saturday. In fact, the City is 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 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.