Media Release
Doha, Dec 20: Christmas was celebrated at Our Lady of Rosary Church on December 15. It was a celebration in which all the communities of the church took an active part by engaging themselves in different activities organized to mark the festival.
The day started with the celebrations for the bachelors of the parish hosted by the Poor of Saint Antony (POSA). Committee members of POSA entertained the huge number of bachelors gathered with fun games, songs, dances followed by lunch.
The evening took off with the Christmas tree lighting followed by carol singing by the TLC choir, SLRC choir, Christ the King choir, Arabic choir, Konkani choir and Jesus youth – Malayalam choir.
The icing on the cake was the performance which followed after the carol singing from various Catechism groups of the parish. A wonderful message was given by the Friday group on every alphabet of the word ‘Christmas’ followed by a rocking dance from the Saturday group. Dances were performed by the Friday junior group, Tamil group, Philipino group. Carols were sung by the French group, Friday group, Saturday group and the Philipino group. A skit on the theme ‘The best present’ with a beautiful message was enacted by the Friday senior group. It was a feast to the audience to watch the children of various catechism groups of the church perform on stage and convey the beautiful message on Christmas.
The evening was hosted by the Catechist of the Friday group Reena Castelino with ease and élan by keeping the audience gathered on their toes with quiz, games, creative claps and line dances led by the youth.
Parish priest Fr Rally Gonzaga gave a beautiful Christmas message to the audience, spiritual director of the Catechism group Fr Anand Castelino thanked one and all gathered, Neri Alphonso, the vice-president of the church rendered the vote of thanks.
The church compound was shining and glowing with Christmas tree, lights and trimmings in colors 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, president of the Konkani speaking community and parish council member, popularly known as the ‘Gurkaram’, was the overall in charge of the food stalls and the cultural programme.
The evening came to an end with a game of bingo conducted by Filomeno Alves and Della Rego.