Report & pics by Priya Saldanha Shirthady/Kuwait & Paul Aranha Shirva.

Kuwait,Sep 17: Abbasiya Families Kuwait celebrated the feast of nativity on Friday 14th September 2011 at Integrated Indian School premises.
 
The program started with general welcome by Ronnie Fernandes.   The statue of Mother Mary was brought in a procession to the stage by Gurkars of the day Walter D’Souza and Francis Valentino along with paddy grain and dates.  Children carrying fresh flowers along with Fr. Noel Almeida, Fr. Andrew, Fr. Antony Lopez, Fr. William Miranda and Deacon Sylvester D’Souza went on procession to the Altar. Hymns were sung by the choir members lead by Konkani’s Golden Voice Ronny D’Cunha. 

Flowers were offered and showered by a record number of kids in a very traditional way.  Mass in Konkani was offered during the celebration.  Mangalore’s harvest Paddy grain and dates were blessed by Fr. Antony Lopez during mass and distributed to the gathered.  Children were overwhelmed with rarely seen ‘sugarcane’ (Kobu) which gave complete enjoyment and excitement of feast.

Priests, Sister’s of Carmel school, sponsors and the people who worked for the success of the program were felicitated with flowers. Fr. William Miranda and Fr. Mathai gave the message of feast to the gathered. 

Gurkars of the day Walter D’Souza and Francis Valentino invited everyone to have blessed traditional vegetarian dinner in Mangalorean traditional way by offering water in ‘Chembu’.  Deacon Sylvester D’Souza lead the grace before meal.  There were a row of entertainment programs like dances, hymns, action songs etc while the guests were served the traditional feast dinner prepared by M & M caterers (Jossy Pinto) on Banana leaves.  Various hymns were sung by the Choir group under the guidance of Rony D’Cunha.  The Program was well compered by Deepak Andrade and Nicol D’Souza.