Saints of Bengaluru city ring in a Yuletide of charity

It’s the season to be charitable. Christmas, being celebrated within days of the Chennai tragedy, the Faithful have been going all out to donate to charities and help the needy. Churches and local communities across Bengaluru have lined up several charitable programmes this Christmas season.

Bengaluru is overflowing with the Yuletide spirit - the city just keeps on giving. As December rolls around each year, our city-dwellers go into overdrive, reaching out to those who can't afford to bring Christmas cheer to their homes.

A 95-foot statue of Santa Claus was the cynosure of all eyes this year, created by members of the St. Joseph's Church Youth Association in Chamrajpet. The towering tribute to St Nicholas is an attempt at the Guiness World Record, which currently stands at about 55 feet. Their idea came to be in November this year, when the 30-year-old association, for whom charity has always been a Christmas hallmark, decided to go larger-than-life. "The idea came from one of our members, Umesh, who is the backbone of the project," said Vincent Paul, Secretary, St. Joseph's Church Youth Association. "We have been working on it since November 1, although we called it off in the middle to collect funds for Chennai."

The statue is made up of almost 30 tonnes of iron, said Paul. "Every single part is handmade, apart from the cloth. We thought of bamboo sticks and hay at first, but they won't be of any use when it is dismantled. Iron can be recycled and all our funds go to charity." The members of the association make their way through surrounding neighbourhoods in search of families who are in dire need of financial assistance. "We sponsor the education for about 20 students a year," said Paul.

The Full Gospel Assembly of God Church in Indiranagar conducts its philanthropic work all year round and kicks into high gear in December. Nearly 500 blankets have been distributed among the blind and to care homes in the city. The church has an annual tradition of taking Christmas to people. "We invited the 800 blind people to the Church for lunch and put together a full programme with Christmas carols, skits and dances," said Singara Salman, a member of the church. Pastor Sammy Thangaiah, who heads New Generation, the youth church, made his way along with his parish to orphanages, special needs schools and old age homes. "They gave out gemoetry boxes, lunch boxes, care packets with snacks and candy and provisions," said Singara.

All lit up for Christmas: St. Mark’s Cathedral on Brigade Road, Bengaluru

Bengaluru's entrepreneurs are doing their bit too. Rahul Nanda, founder of Foodie Doodle, has been visiting Snehadhaan, a home for HIV positive children. Nanda and Anurag Misra, who owns Wareabouts, a restaurant in the city, got together to give the kids at Snehadhaan a special Christmas treat. "At first, we considered doing some branding of our own, but we decided against it. This was about the kids," said Nanda, after the event, which took place on Wednesday afternoon. "Bengaluru has gone all-out for Chennai and we thought we should do something locally, too."

Be the Santa: A startup charity campaign

The BHIVE startup community, through the #beethesanta campaign, will make donations to Building Blocks India, an organisation that supports children from economically underprivileged backgrounds. CEOs, co-founders and entrepreneurs from the BHIVE startup community will play Santa to the 50-odd kids who are supported by Building Blocks India. The campaign, which began on December 18, will continue until Jan 9, 2016.

Embassy Office parks initiated ‘Gift a Smile’ for Christmas this year. Gifts were distributed to over 2000 underprivileged children from government schools, jointly supported by the Embassy Group, Colours of Life, Bengaluru and Gurukulam, Pune. The children were gifted colouring kits, stationary kits, sports kits, board games, exam boards, puzzles and toys.

Prayer Timings

St Mary's Basilica, Shivajinagar
English mass at 8 pm on December 24,
followed by a Kannada mass at 10 pm.
Midnight mass will take place in Tamil on
Dec 25, starts at 12 am.

St Patrick's Church, Brigade Road
Carol singing will begin at 11.15 pm on December 24, followed by the Christmas Mass at 11.45 pm. The church will be opened at 10 pm.

St. Andrew's Cubbon Road
Carol singing begins at 10 pm, followed by the Eucharist at 10.30 pm on December 24

Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church, Sarjapur
Carol singing at 9 pm, followed by Eucharistic celebrations at 9.30 pm in English. Kannada carols at 11.15 pm and mass at 11.45 pm.  (Kannada and Tamil masses happen simultaneously in the chapel and church respectively).

Resurrection Church
Dec. 24: 10.45 pm, Carol singing
11.50 pm: Midnight Mass commences
December 25:
06.30 am Kannada Mass
7.30 am English Mass
08.45: Tamil Mass
10 am: Malayalam Mass

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