Christian community exchange greeting on Christmas

ISLAMABAD, Dec 25 (APP):Christian community, residing in twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, on Monday exchanged
greetings with their kins and fellows.
On x-max day, churches were decorated with Christmas trees, gifts, special ornamental items,
wall hangings and illuminated with colorful lights. Christian community of twin cities also adorned
their homes and streets with wreaths, garlands, ornaments, lights and stockings.
Streets, houses and shops in several Christian communities, churches, missionary schools
and institutions in twin cities have also been lit up with colorful lights. Special prayers for the integrity,
solidarity, progress and prosperity for the country were also offered.
The Christmas celebrations were in full swing in residential colonies in various sectors of federal
capital while people of |Rawalpindi also expressed their joys through holding sermons in churches,
exchanging sweets and visiting friends and relatives.
“We have decorated our houses with colorful lights, flags, balloons and with the most special
Christmas trees, distributed gifts among children and prepared special food items on the occasion for
friends and family”, a resident of Christian Colony, Shaukat Masih said.
Various government, semi-government departments of the twin cities also held special events to
mark the day and share the joys of Christian brothers and sisters.
In this connection Allama Iqbal Open University’s (AIOU) commenced a ceremony to greet
Christian employees by paying rich tributes to Hazrat Esa (AS) through disseminating his message
of love to humanity.
A colorful ‘Christmas Mela’ was held at National Institute of Folk and Traditional Heritage (Lok
Virsa) on Friday.
The mela was organized by Lok Virsa in collaboration with Federal Directorate of Education (FDE),
Pur Fazal Kaleiseya Pakistan (Full of Grace Church) and St. Thomas Church here at Garden Avenue,
Shakarparian.
The special features of the moot included erection of Christmas Tree, distribution of sweets by
Santa Claus, an artisans at work exhibition, live folk musical performances.
A prestigious ribbon cutting, cake cutting and opening ceremony was held in the beautiful
surroundings of the Heritage Museum, which was graced by Dr. Fouzia Saeed, Executive Director,
Lok Virsa along with senior members of Lok Virsa Board of Governors namely Farooq Qaiser and
Taqi Akhundzada.
The ceremony presented live national songs “Sohni Dharti Allah Rakhe” and “Millat Ka Pasban
hai Muhammad Ali Jinnah” by students of IMCG, G-10/4, IMCG F-7/2 & IMCG G-6/1-3.
According to a police spokesman 3,500 police personnel have been deployed in the city and
special deployment was ensured at churches and public places. In addition, ladies police, personnel
of special branch and elite force were also on duty to ensure full security arrangements.
Huge crowd was witnessed at the sweets shops and food outlets across the country for
special Christmas decorated cakes, baskets of delicious cookies and hand-crafted chocolates
besides other cuisines.
For the festival, bakers and sweet shops introduced the best styles and innovative ideas
for the decorative Christmas cakes to attract the customers.