Doha: Christmas bells rang at the Church of Our Lady of Rosary, Qatar since the morning of Friday, December 14. It was a celebration in which all communities of the church took an active part by getting engaged in different activities organized to mark of the festival.
The day began with a celebration for the bachelors of the parish, hosted by the Poor of Saint Antony (POSA). The committee members of POSA entertained the huge number of bachelors gathered with fun games, songs and dances and gifts followed by lunch.
The evening took off with the Christmas tree lighting followed by carol singing by the Lawang Buhay choir, Marian choir, Christ the King choir, Arabic choir, Augustine choir Spanish community and Urdu Pakistani community.
The icing on the cake was the performances by the various Catechism groups of the parish. Dances were performed by the Friday junior group, Tamil group and Philipino group. Carols were sung by the French group, Friday group, Saturday group and the Pilipino group. It was a true feast for the audience’s eyes to watch the children of various catechism groups of the church perform on stage and convey the beautiful Christmas message.
The evening’s event was hosted by Peroz and Nancy Jane along with Joseph to keep the audience on their toes with quizzes, games, creative claps and line dances led by the youth.
The church compound shone and glowed with the Christmas tree, lights and trimmings in colours of red, gold and silver. This gave a festive look and enfolded the ones gathered with a feeling of the season. Food stalls were set up in the compound with homemade delicacies from the parishioners of all communities.
Vivian D’Souza Bondel, the outgoing President of the Konkani speaking community and active Parish Council Member, popularly known as the ‘Gurkaram’, was overall in-charge of the food stalls and the cultural program.
Parish Priest Rev. Fr. Rally Gonzaga gave a beautiful Christmas message to the audience and Vivian D’Souza proposed the vote of thanks.
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