Hyderabad: City gears up for Christmas

Hyderabad: The city is decked up to celebrate Christmas with pomp and grandeur and the lanes are blooming with melodious tunes of carols, as various churches and Christian organisations are planning grand celebrations.

The churches are gearing up for Christmas Eve and midnight mass. A few churches have planned to recreate the scene of Jesus’ birth prophecy till the crucifixion,and a few others have organised celebrations of the festival in collaboration with the transgender community and orphanage out of humanitarian concerns. Christmas decorations and culinary delights have been adorning the markets and shops.

G Selvavice, secretary of the United Christmas Celebration Committee, said, “This year plan to celebrate Christmas with grandeur, along with caroling and gathering curtailed. Various churches have planned various colorful programmes this year. This year for the first time, orphanage girls sang carols in Wesley church Secunderabad and also a few members promised to help them”.

Varghese Theckanath, Director of Montfort Social Institute said, “Christmas is celebrated in the name of a child, but today children in conflict zones are facing the most inhuman and brutal conditions”. A special Christmas celebration was organised at the Montfort Social Institute, Ramanthapur with the theme ‘Children in Conflict Zones - Expressions through Poetry, Singing, Painting, and Dance’.

One of the members of St Joseph’s Cathedral, Gunfoundry, Abids, said, “Our church is gearing up to celebrate back-to-back events including youth Christmas, Sunday school and Christmas Eve, and midnight mass. On last Sunday the church organised a musical night followed by a fellowship dinner. The church installed a huge Christmas tree and a life-size nativity scene as part of its elaborate decor.”