Churches get ready for Christmas finale

• Churches looking colourful with paintings and decorations 
• Christmas is a festival of joy and peace: Bishop Isaiah 

Anantapur: More than 200 churches in the city and a thousand in the district are bracing up for the grand Christmas finale on December 25. 

The celebrations in all churches kick-started on November 25 by organising ‘Suppose Christmas’ like washing functions marking the advent of Christmas season. Churches white-washing and decorations with the stars, Christmas trees and paintings are making the outlook of churches and Christian homes colourful. Several shops are already bustling with Christmas consumers purchasing decorative items and shop owners are making roaring business. 

Bakeries in the city are already making plum cakes which are in high demand as every Christmas celebration in churches start with cutting of Christmas cake. Political leaders of all shades are attending Christmas celebrations and are taking advantage of the celebrations and are using the occasion to woo the community to their party as Assembly elections are drawing near. 

Bishop Isaiah at a Christmas function held here on Saturday described Christmas as a festival of joy and peace. When Christ was born the angels sang ‘Joy to the world, the Lord is Come, Let Earth receive her King’. Jesus was born to die for the sins of mankind on Christmas day. 

The birth of Jesus has given salvation and light to a world groping in darkness, he observed. The joy of Christmas is to be shared with the have-nots and those hopeless in life. Meanwhile, churches are bracing up for the Carol parties which are meant to brighten silent nights in the cold December by young carolling bands.