Mangalore / Udupi: The Christians of coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Kasargod celebrated Christmas with great pomp and gaiety.

Almost all the churches had the grand Christmas mass on Thursday night. Bishop Rev Dr Aloysius Paul D’Souza conducted the grand mass at the Rosario Cathedral while the Udupi diocesan Bishop Rev Dr Gerald Isaac Lobo celebrated the mass at the Cathedral at Kallianpur and later at the Mother of Sorrows Church in Udupi at midnight.

Though almost all the churches in the coastal districts had started the preparations for making the crib about a month ago, the final touches were given on the eve of Christmas. In Mangalore City, cribs at all the churches – including Cathedral (Rosario), Lady of Miracles (Milagres), St Sebastian’s Church (Bendoor), Holy Cross Church (Kulshekar), Infant Jesus Shrine (Bikarnakatta), St Joseph’s Seminary (Jeppu), St Rita’s Church (Cascia), Guardian Angel church (Angelore), St Lawrence (Bondel), Mother Theresa (Paldane), St Francis Xavier church (Bejai) and Our Lady of Immaculate Conception (Urwa) – seemed to compete with one another. Some of these churches had recreated Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ.

The churches in Udupi as well as Kasargod district had laid beautiful cribs, especially at Kallianpur and Udupi.

The City itself has been wearing a festive look for the past few days. Be it making cribs, decorating roofs and apartments with Christmas stars or making ‘kuswar’ (the traditional sweets made during Christmas season, which include nevryo, kideo, gulio, kokkisan, rice laddu, tukdi and, of course, cakes), every Catholic family was busy in one or the other way. Many well-known bakeries made a brisk business while a number of shopowners had set up ‘temporary’ bakeries (with shamiyana covering the roofs) on the roadsides in many places in the City.

Modernisation has dampened the spirit of many families as most of them preferred to purchase the ‘kuswar’ from bakeries than prepare them at home. As a part of tradition, many Christians also exchanged the kuswar with their brethren and distributed among the non-Christians. Interestingly, a few people had set up cracker shops too on the roadside, which is not common during Christmas.