The St Francis Church located on Convent Road, Dehradun, is being decked out for the X-mas.
Enthusiasm is palpable among the Christian community people as well as the non-Christians. Several programmes are lined up to mark the day. Works to give the church a dazzling look, appropriate to the occasion, are going on in full swing under the supervision of Father Valerian Pinto. The preparation for the Christmas celebration started in churches from the second week of December itself and the celebration would continue for one week till the New Year. Every year, Christmas is celebrated with both solemnity and gaiety in the state capital just like any other city in the country. Not only the churches but the stores, malls and restaurants are being decked out gaudily to mark the celebration. Father Valerian Pinto of St. Francis Church, Convent Road Dehradun, said that the church is being appropriately illuminated. More than 600 persons mostly from the Christian community gather on the Christmas-eve to celebrate the advent of the savior Jesus Christ. It is, however, not a community-specific festival. It transcends the border of communalism to get a cosmopolitan flavour.
Non-Christian community also participates in the prayer in a big way held at 8.30 am on Christmas to celebrate the merry occasion of the Savior taking birth to save humanity. A local resident J James said that she and her family keep impatiently waiting for the Christmas festival. “We have illuminated our house with the decors appropriate to the solemn occasion. The final celebration would begin with prayers and cutting of cake from the midnight of 24 December. The celebration would continue through the whole night to be followed by mass gathering in churches to mark the advent of the Jesus, the Savior. She also said that every year her mother bakes plum cake. Carol singing and prayers are already on in our place. Christmas epitomizes love and joy. It is meant to deepen bonds of fraternity among humanity, irrespective of the synthetic divides in the name of caste, creed, colour and country. It is a call for us to get out of the hide-bound cloister of sectarianism to feel spiritual oneness with God and humanity alike, she added.