GUWAHATI: It is the holiday season again, and Guwahati has geared up to celebrate Christmas.
However, given the ongoing nationwide protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, the atmosphere has dampened compared to the previous years.
The past years have seen the people of this city celebrating Christmas with lots of fun-fair irrespective of their religion.
G Plus visited some of the churches in the city to get hold of the arrangements made on the eve of Christmas. They are colourfully decorated with flowers, stars, Christmas trees, ‘fairy light’ strips and much more. Kiosks are displayed depicting the birth and life of Jesus Christ.
Markets and makeshift stalls are seen selling varieties of decorative and gift items to liven up the festive spirit.
G Plus talked to the Reverend Roger Gaikwad, the Presbyter of the Christ Church Guwahati in Panbazar enquiring about this year’s preparations. He said that “The preparations were made as usual. We started our celebrations of Christmas right from 1st December preparing for the advent season.” He said a programme that was to be held on the 15th Dec got postponed to the 22nd Dec, given the bandhs and curfew, however, the turn up of crowd was even more compared to the previous year.
Preparations are going on at full scale in the St. Josephs Cathedral in Don Bosco School, Guwahati. Father Vincent Xalxo sdb, Parish Priest of the church mentioned that prayer services would be held presided over by himself and also Archbishop John Moolachira and Januarius S. Sangma, the Provincial of Guwahati Province, but the late night cultural affairs might not be the same given the charged up atmosphere.
The preceding years have seen large crowds thronging in on the Christmas evening. Father Vincent said that although the school had to postpone the Christmas Carnival that was to be held on the 21st Dec, they are hopeful that Guwahatians would turn up in large numbers on the 25th.
In this regard he had talked to the OC of Panbazar PS and had been assured complete support.
However, the market presents a different story. Given the protests and the death of five people including 17years old Sam Stafford, people are not enthusiastic about celebrations. There are new electronic santas, stars, tress and much more on the displays but decline in customers.
The proprietors of the famous Christmas outlets put up at Silpukhuri area every year said that customers are mostly shopping small items for their kids but sales as a whole are low.
