Celebrations peaked as devotees adhering to COVID safety norms thronged tastefully-decorated churches across SPSR Nellore district to ring in Christmas late on Friday.
After giving a miss to social gatherings in the past, a large number of people gathered at the famous ABM Church at the Nakallavari Centre with normalcy returning.
The lone star Telugu Baptist Church as also the St. Antony Church at Fatehkhanpet witnessed a good gathering of devotees who gathered to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ in the wake of the number of active Coronavirus cases coming down drastically. Various denomination of churches, including the St. Joesph Cathedral, were colourfully decorated on the occasion.
As a precaution, pastors have suggested that the elderly and ill-people continue to celebrate the festival by attending the holy mass from their home virtually as done in the previous couple of years, as new variants of COVID-19 were likely to turn out to be super spreader of the viral disease.
Sand sculpture
Meanwhile, the sand sculpture of Santa Claus created with five tonnes of sand at Eruru was the cynosure of all eyes.
It took five hours to create the beautiful sand sculpture, said the artist Sanath Kumar while giving a finishing touch to the mammoth image of Father Chirstmas with whose blessings the devotees can win over the dreaded disease.
The month-long semi-Christmas celebrations peaked on Christmas eve, with the faithful singing carols in churches. Voluntary organisations distributed gifts to under-privileged children. People thronged the shopping malls at VRC Centre and other junctions to make purchases in the eleventh hour.
Textile shop owners organised festival sale offering attractive discounts to woo the merry-makers. Vendors selling stars and other decoration material also did a brisk business.
