Daily Times

LAHORE: Exchanging love, smiles, happiness and gifts, the Christian community in the provincial capital celebrated Christmas with traditional fervour on Sunday.

Christmas celebrations started with special night services (prayer ceremonies) – organised at several churches – to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

Whereas, main prayer sermons were held on Sunday morning at all churches across the city, that were attended by a large number of people. Loads of Christians thronged different churches, including Saint Anthony’s, St Joseph’s Church, Cathedral Church, Lahore Diocese Church, St Mary Magdalene Church, Naulakha Presbyterian and others.

Hymns and special rituals were also offered by the Christian community. They also offered special prayers for prosperity and sovereignty of the country. Priests, in their sermons, also stressed the need to increase brotherhood and peace among different sections of the society.

An extraordinary rush of citizens was also witnessed at public parks and recreational places, including Gulshan Park, Safari Park, Shalamar Bagh, Minar-e-Pakistan, Jillani Park, Bagh-e-Jinnah, Fortress Stadium, Lahore Museum, Lahore Fort, Badshahi Mosque and Lahore Zoo, which was jam packed with families, who had come to have a day out. Special dishes were prepared and served to guests at homes.

Several cake-cutting ceremonies were organised by different political parties and different organisations to show solidarity with the Christian community. Members of the Christian community also exchanged gifts, cakes, sweets, greetings and best wishes.

However, some people also complained about low quality of edibles at parks at exorbitant rates. They demanded the prime minister of Pakistan and the Punjab chief minister for starting a shuttle bus service from residential areas to recreational places on their special occasions like Christmas, Easter and Good Friday. They said most of the residential areas were present at the corner of the city like that Joseph Colony and Youhanabad.

A large number of people thronged the Lahore Railway Station to see ‘Christmas Peace Train’ which started its countywide journey from Islamabad and reached Lahore Railway Station on Saturday evening. The train has three art galleries and two floats. The train will leave for Sahiwal today (Monday) after a two-day stay in the provincial metropolis.

Punjab Police and City Traffic Police were also remained busy to ensure peaceful environment and maintain traffic flow on the main roads of the city, especially outside of recreational places, respectively.

Meanwhile, Provincial Minister for Information and Excise and Taxation Mian Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman also cut a cake to commemorate Christmas and birthdays of Quaid-i-Azam and Nawaz Sharif.

Congratulated the Christian community, the minister said, “It is a very special day, as Christmas and birthdays of the father of the nation Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the prime minister fall on the same day.”