If the market is flooded with Christmas cards, gift items and plum cakes, churches in the city are being decked up for the prayer services for Christmas.
Churches in the city have started decorating their premises to make sure that the crowd present at night at the churches enjoy Christmas. Almost all the churches in the city will start their first prayer service at 10:30 night.
Bishop Father Felix Toppo at the prayer service in midnight will lead the child Jesus and place him on the crib inside the church. This is a normal tradition and has been followed every year by the church. The carol singing at the St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Golmuri and other Roman Catholic churches will begin at 10:30 pm and the prayer service at 12:15 am.
Missionary schools like Sacred Heart Convent School, Carmel Junior College and other schools are being illuminated for Christmas followed by New Year. “It is mainly illumination of the church and the surrounding building. Also the church is decorated with balloons, paper lanterns and paper crafts etc to make the ambience beautiful. After the mass we distribute coffee and cakes to all people present there. Even it is midnight, it does not seem to be so because everybody is eager to be present at the church to just witness the birth of the Christ,” said Father Henry Sequerira from the St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Golmuri.
The St. Joseph’s Cathedral this year will have three cribs of Jesus Christ for the convenience of the devotees. Carol singing at the St. Joseph’s Cathedral, Golmuri will start their carol singing at 10.45 at night followed by the mass at 11.30 which took an hour and a half. The same process will be followed in all the other six Roman Catholic Churches of the city.
All the six Roman Catholic churches in the city will start their programmes in the evening. Lupita Hall, Telco will start their mass at 12 midnight. Before a week, members of the Lupita Hall, Telco roam around the Christian families of the area and gave them messages of love and peace. “We will attend the mass prayer service at the Lupita Hall in Telco. After the morning prayer service it is the time for family and friends to visit each other and wish them,” said a co-ordinator of the youth Jamshedpur Catholic Diocese.