GUWAHATI, Dec 20 � With only a few days left for Christmas, the entire city is painted in the colours of the festival. Decorated with jingle bells and twinkling stars, the markets and shopping malls of the city are doing their best to attract crowds.
Guwahati has donned a colourful look with illuminated buildings and bright decorations. With the New Year festivities ahead, people are also busy in shopping for the Christmas and the New Year.
The churches of the city have already started the celebrations with pre-Christmas programmes and carol singing. Christmas itinerary of most of the churches usually starts a week ahead of the festival and stretches up to the first week of the new year.
�We start singing door-to-door carol in the nearby localities from a few weeks ahead of Christmas. Though we mostly visit the houses of Christian people, believers of other faiths also invite us with great enthusiasm to their houses. We spread the message of peace and joy through carol singing,� said Dipshikha Basumatari, member of a Catholic church, who leads the carol team in different localities of the city.
Many shopping malls have placed life-size cut-outs of Santa Clause and decorated Xmas trees to attract children. �Christmas and New Year is a time when people spend on cards, flowers, gifts, chocolates and showpieces. Like every year, we are expecting a good business this year too. We have special Xmas and New Year cards for different age groups,� said a gift shop owner of Panbazar.
Delicious and aromatic cakes are another specialty of the Christmas season. Keeping the taste of the customers in mind, the bakeries are preparing special Xmas cakes with the icing of Xmas trees, stars etc.
The Xmas celebration is no longer restricted to the people of Christian community only. �Though we are not Christians, we visit the St Joseph�s Cathedral at Panbazar every year, light candle and pray for our near and dear ones,� said Chandamita Sarma of Pub Sarania.
