Press Release
Abu Dhabi: Huge crowd attended one of the most talked events of the Abu Dhabi Parish, “Christmas Festival 2014” on December 12, at the St Joseph’s Cathedral, UAE.
The whole day Christmas Bazar was filled with loads of fun, games and variety of cuisine from all communities served from morning 10:00 am to 10:00 pm. People flocked from all corners of the UAE for this grand festival which was celebrated by more than 100 nationalities. The main demand was for Mangalorean, Goan and Malayalam food as large number of people were crowded around these food stalls to taste the favourite and traditional delicacies.
The grand celebrations began with a warm welcome accorded by the Main Co-coordinator of the event Dophy Vaz, he felicitated Bishop Paul Hinder and all the priests. Fr Savarimuthu (Parish Priest) in his address thanked all the organizers for putting up this grand event for the purpose of charity. The inauguration of the event began with the releasing of balloons by Bishop Paul Hinder and Fr Savarimuthu.
The main attraction of the day was the grand arrival of Santa Claus with his escorts. Santa uses variety of vehicles every year to the venue such as Camel, Horse, Motor Cycle or Car. But this year Santa preferred a simple bicycle. His troupe consisting of little Santas arrived in tiny bicycles whereas Santa arrived in a strong 4 wheel Bicycle as he was carrying loads of gifts. He was welcomed by the cheering crowd, all the priests and bishop on the stage. Santa distributed the gifts and chocolates to the little children assembled near the stage. Santa then went around the stalls and mingled freely with the people and greeted them on the occasion of Christmas Festival.
The celebrations continued with loads of entertainment programs throughout the day as various community groups presented Christmas Choirs, Tableau’s, variety of Arabic, Indian Bollywood dances and instrumentals.
The Bishop too participated in presenting Christmas Carols as he and all the priests joined in singing Christmas Carols namely: Silent Night while bishop sang in his native German language and the priests sang in English.
One of the priests Fr Reynolds also joined the dance troupe dancing to the famous Bollywood number “Lungi Dance” it was indeed a treat to watch and everyone gathered cheered Fr Reynolds for his dancing skills, he not only danced but was actually singing the Hindi song too, a remarkable performance by an European Priest.
There were also loads of goodies and gifts given as raffle draw mainly I-phones by Konkani Prayer Group, sisters stall and gifts for wearing Christmas Shirts. The KPG distributed 9 I-phones through raffle draw which was held every hour from 12 noon to 9:00 pm giving away brand new I-phones to the lucky winners.
Prior to the concluding ceremony a wonderful tableau based on a Bible theme “Joseph the dreamer” was beautifully enacted by God’s Flock Choir and was well applauded by the audience. Dolphy Vaz the (Main Coordinator) delivered the vote of thanks, he said that he was very grateful to Bishop Paul Hinder, Parish Priest Fr Muthu, all the priests, the community leaders, sponsors, volunteers, sound-system (Broadway), DJ Rudy who performed whole day with his latest numbers, Mcs of the day Roydon,Parvez and Avito Carvalo who were screaming at the top of their voice to get the attention of the huge crowd throughout and the media representatives.
The final session included raffle draw on entry coupons and final draw of I-phone. The entry coupons included 20 prizes and the final item the grand prize was a CAR which was won by Dilanka (Sri-Lankan National) which was picked by Bishop himself who gave away the key of the new car to the winner.
The draw for final I-phone prize was organized by one of the prominent leader of KPG Lancy D’Souza and the lucky winner was given away with the final I-phone.
