Christmas unfolds in unity and joy in Kolkata

Kolkata, Dec 25: Christmas, also called 'Boro deen' in Kolkata, is both private and cosmopolitan for the metro that is celebrating it in its rich and traditional verve and grandeur.

It is private for the Christians who celebrate it with traditional fanfare and cosmopolitan as the Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh or atheist find the yuletide spirit while swapping a wish-- 'Merry Christmas'.

Everyone comes home to share Christmas cake. Its an excuse to return to where you belong. The celebration is universal, and even more special considering that just about two per cent of the population in the city is Christian.

Usually celebrations begin with the midnight mass. This year also the churches lit up in all its grandeur as the bishop of St Paul's Cathedral, the biggest church in the city, was filled with mass and midnight carols.

Christmas shopping has also spread out from the New Market areas, the central market place, to every other shopping malls and streets now dotted with Santa Claus and Christmas trees. And the amazing thing about the city of joy is that more non-christians buy it than christians.

In the morning of Christmas many Christians go to the graveyard to lay flowers in memory of their beloveds. Its a quiet little time spent before they head back for a day of fun and gaiety.

Though Christmas shopping and markets have exploded across the city, the most enduring image of Christma in Kolkata is New Market.

No mall with marbles and tiles can replace the rows of decorated shops, rosarys, Santa Claus, cake shops oozing a rich perfume and a hge christmas tree in the centre of the market besides a cannon, so very integral to the market itself.

Christmas has its own colour here in the city where reknowned confectioners make Christmas delicacies, in their own ways. But the authentic taste of Christmas is not lost at all as a rich spread of roasted turkey, stuffed goose and plum pudding are laid out in most of the Christian houses.

It is here that Piccadilly meets Park Street.

UNI