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Christmas dampened by rain
Christians across Sri Lanka remembered the birth of Jesus Christ with happiness in their hearts whether kneeling at a church altar or enjoying a
It was a blue christmas for firecracker sellers. Pix by Athula Devapriya
cooked meal at a camp set up for forlorn flood victims – but the barrage of rain and the disasters brought in its wake dampened seasonal high spirits.
Christian devotees of Colombo moved through rainswept, muddy streets with their hearts only warmed by the goodwill intrinsic to the season. Water dripped from strings of LED bulbs and from the edges of Nativity displays showcasing the birth of Jesus Christ.
Many estate workers in the Badulla district could not attend Christmas mass in their local churches due to heavy rain and roads blocked by landslides and fallen trees.
An earthslip buried the house of a Catholic family, killing two members.
Clergy from the Badulla diocese visited landslide-displaced people in Meeriyabedde to give them Christmas cheer, said the Bishop of Badulla, Rev. Winston Fernando.
Social workers from Caritas, the social wing of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, travelled by boat to visit families in Mullikulam and Periyamulippu robbed of celebrations by the floods in Mannar.
Christmas children’s programmes organised by parishes in Anandapuram, Thirunagar and Kanakapuram in Killinochchi were postponed until
Suresh
December 28 due to floods, said the parish priest of the Killinochchi St. Theresa’s Church, Father F.A. George. Several parishes in the district were under water.
In the Mullaitivu District, churches of Pudukuduirippu were unable to hold Christmas Mass due to the heavy rain and flash floods.
In Anuradhapura, several parishes were submerged by cascading waters. The markets and shopping zones of the district which would usually be overflowing with people at this time of the year were bare in the downpour.
But there was fellowship amid the distress. “It was heart-warming to see the people of Anuradhapura help one another during troubled times. This is the true meaning of Christmas,” said the Bishop of Anuradhapura, Rev. Norbert Andradi.
Seasonal celebrations usually mean firecrackers, rockets and sparklers. This year, however, December 24 and 25 did not echo with such celebratory sounds as heavy downpor across most of the country drwoned out all sounds.
“Usually we earn about Rs. 30 000 a day by selling crackers and the like. This year our sales have gone down a lot because of the rain. On a good day we earned only Rs. 6,000. This rain is bad luck for everybody,” said P.G. Suresh who has been selling festive goods on the Kirulapone streets for the past seven years.