Christmas celebrated across J&K with gaiety

Amid spine chills, Christmas was celebrated with gusto in Jammu and Kashmir. While churches in Jammu were decorated with colourful buntings and lightings and Hindu and Christians were seen exchanging sweets, a group of Muslims visited a Catholic Church in Srinagar city to give a message of communal harmony and brotherhood with minority community as according to census-2011, out of the total 35,631 Christian population of Jammu and Kashmir, the Valley has 11,857 Christian members.

Meanwhile amid celebrations, a 19 year old boy namely Pratham Gill son of Ravi Gill of Christian Colony got fainted in a party. His friends Danick son of Danial of Amritsar and Falix son of Vishal of Mandal ran away leaving him in a church.

The incident took place in the Phalian Mandal area. Later, police took the unconscious boy to the GMC hospital where he was declared dead. The reason behind the death is being ascertained by police.

The Christmas functions were held at Sher-e- Kashmir Bhawan in Jammu, St Paul Church and St. Mary’s Garrison Church at Gandhi Nagar with gaiety where people of all religions offered prayers and exchanged sweets.

While in Srinagar, the main function was held at Catholic Church at Maulana Azad road where a large number of members of the Christian community including women and children attended the mass prayers.The church was decorated with colorful buntings, balloons and also illuminated.

A group of Muslims also joined their Christians brethren at Catholic Church Srinagar to celebrate the festival and to convey a message of communal harmony and brotherhood among the communities.

The Muslims also distributed sweets, exchanged greetings on the occasion. They also wore Santa hats to share joy and celebrate the festival.

Maulana Abdullah, who was leading the group, while talking to the media persons said they have come to the Church to celebrate the festival with their Christian brethren and to spread the message of communal harmony, brotherhood and peace.

“This is a small community here and they should not feel isolated on such festive occasions”, he added.
He said, “Some vested interests have been spreading fake narratives across the world that minorities were not safe here, which is not true.”

“We came here today to bust that narrative and wanted to show the world that we are one and we belong to one god as well, regardless of our religions,” he added.

Father Brito said, “Christmas is a message of love, joy and happiness. Our Muslim brothers have always stood by us on these occasions and Christmas is an occasion which gives us an opportunity to share that joy, happiness and brotherhood with each other,” he said.

Reports of Christmas celebrations were also received from various parts of the valley including Baramulla and Gulmarg. Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha in a tweet greeted people on the occasion.
“Greetings to all on the joyous occasion of Christmas. The festival epitomises the spirit of forgiveness & peace. It is an occasion to celebrate & imbibe Jesus Christ’s message of brotherhood, compassion & forgiveness. May the Christmas this year usher in peace, happiness & joy for all,” LG said.