IN REVERENCE: Vijayawada Bishop Mallavarapu Prakash offering prayers to a replica depicting `Baby Christ' during Christmas celebrations in Vijayawada on Sunday. - PHOTO: RAJU. V.

VIJAYAWADA: Christmas rings in the season of joy and happiness - a time to let in light and banish evils of the world. So contagious was the festival mood in the city that one couldn't afford to resist the bliss of the celebrations.

An air of festivity engulfed shops and homes while streets and markets went gay with festival wares. Delicious cookies, lip-smacking chocolates and plum cakes flood bakeries where bakers worked overtime to cater to the heavy demand for multi-flavoured cakes.

The night preceding the Christmas day was abuzz with activity. Dances, songs, Christmas trees and Santa Clause moving through the streets in his long, colourful robes, shaking hands with the passers-by and pulling out delightful gifts from his long drooping pockets for children around, are some of the most awaited facets of the merry celebrations.

Festive look

Lovely gifts hanging from branches of the sparkling Christmas trees were a big lure for kids who flocked around and watched in awe the wondrous and inspiring spirit that the festival exuded. Midnight mass and singing of carols from house to house exuded an air of peace and harmony. It was time to open one's heart and share the exultation with the near and dear ones.

The city wore a festive look as Christians painted the town red by congregating at the churches adorned magnificently for the occasion. Colour lights and buntings festooned the pathways leading to the main entrance of the churches. Devotees clad in new clothes and carrying the holy Bible thronged the places of worship. Those who missed out on the midnight mass made it up by attending the mass of the dawn. "My Christmas message was mainly about the visit of the Son of God, Jesus Christ to this world. His visit had a purpose - to inspire the mankind to lead a meaningful life. This is possible only when has clarity of goal," said Vijayawada Bishop Mallavarapu Prakash here on Sunday.

Gifts for orphans

Community celebrations are over before the crack of the dawn. Besides individual celebrations, several religious and voluntary organisations distributed food and clothing to the poor. Poor feeding and distribution of small gifts to orphan children was a common sight in front of most of the churches.

Children at the welfare hostel in Social Service Centre premises had a gala time savouring special biryani served on the occasion. The traditional holy mass that sends out a clear Christmas message to the masses is the central theme of the festival that is all about ushering in harmony and brotherhood.

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