Ahead of the Christmas Day celebrations, the Kokrajhar Town Baptist Church organised a colourful Christmas carol service to mark Pre-Christmas celebration with various traditional cultural programmes at Kokrajhar twon on Wednesday.
The carol service began with a car bike rally throughout Kokrajhar town to the Karigaon Road.
A car rally was also carried out in Kokrajhar coinciding with Pre-Christmas celebrations at the Kokrajhar Town Baptist Church complex in Kokrajhar, the headquarters of BTC administration.
Christian devotees and followers, belonging to different communities, gathered in large numbers from different churches like Baptist, Lutern, CNI, Believers church, etc. and joined hands with traditional music instruments in the carol dance on the occasion of the Pre-Christmas celebration ahead of the Christmas Day celebrations.
The grand car rally, organised on the occasion, started from the Town Baptist Church complex, went through JD Road, Vivekananda Path, RNB Road, new flyover and culminated at the starting point. The rally extended goodwill messages for bringing peace and integration among all sections of the people ahead the Christmas celebrations.
Arun Basumatary, a church leader, said that the car rally was taken out for the first time this year.
Earlier also, there were Pre-Christmas celebrations but it was limited to house-to-house singing and dancing programmes. He added, “Christmas is celebrated as the Heavenly Father has sent his only begotten Son Jesus Christ to this world for the salvation of our soul, not only to the Christians but to all the people. So, we celebrate Christmas every year to praise the Lord.”
Artistes from various communities including Bodo, Garo, Adivasi (Santhali), Rabha, etc. participated in the cultural programmes.
The artistes dressed in traditional attire performed traditional music instruments like Kham, Serja, Sifung, Mandhal, Dhol, etc, and the prayer songs were also sung in Bodo and several other languages.
Young devotees and participants also presented carol dance, prayer songs in English, Bodo and several other languages.
Retired Rev. Nitananda Borgoyary, Bishop of Lutern church, while speaking on the occasion said: “We celebrate Christmas as God sent his only one begotten Jesus Christ to save the sinners. God did not send his son to punish, judge this earth, but sent him to save us, who need to get salvation from sins.”
Reoreoa Narzihary, orgnaiser of the Pre-Christmas celebration, said: “This is an initiative to offer prayer and remember Jesus Christ ahead of the Christmas Day celebration. Devotees and followers have participated in the celebration with festive fervour to mark the celebration.”
Boro Baptist Church Association (BBCA) president and secretary Dr. Arjun Basumatary, A Basumatary, respectively; Rev. Dhojen Basumatary, secretary of the gospel fellowship, BBCA; Abraham Moshahary, president of the youth committee were also present in the event.