Christmas celebrated with devotion in Tripura

Hundreds of Christians gathered at Nandannagar Don Bosco church to celebrate the annual Christmas Eve Midnight Mass yesterday.

They prayed to the Lord for world peace along with their state and hope feast like Christmas can restore peace and harmony in the region.

The priest of the church viewed that Jesus came to this world to bring peace to the world. Special prayers and musical programmed from midnight of Friday was conducted during the annual Christmas Eve Midnight Mass here.

The first Christians settlement, in once kingly state Tripura, is the Proteges who had a small colony at Moriamnagar on the outskirts of Agartala and had come as warriors and bodyguards for the Manikya dynasty kings who rule the state for more than 500 years.

The mass prayed to the Lord with the theme 'Jesus Christ savior of the world', and for bringing down in the suffering of people and change in the depths of hearts of people the cause of all evil and bring peace.

Thousands heard the priest speak inside the cathedral despite the night very foggy and people including a good number of youths turned out for the day.

The area was echoing with the carol sang in the church right from the evening praising the Lord and people celebrated the day. Many away from their house also participated in the celebration.

Agartala diocese covers the whole state. Agartala, where the diocese is based, is Tripura's capital, 2,585 kilometers east of New Delhi.

Nearly 80 percent of the state's 3.1 million people are Bengali-speaking Hindus. Most migrated from Bangladesh (erstwhile East Pakistan), which surrounds three sides of Tripura. The state is linked to the rest of India through Mizoram state to the east.

Christianity entered the hilly kingly state Tripura which later merged with India in October 1949.

However, along with the Christians hundreds of people from other religion also celebrated the festival with full devotion and decorated their houses with lights and stars for the day.