Mizoram celebrates Christmas with religious enthusiasm, traditional fervour

Aizawl, Dec 25 (PTI) Christmas was celebrated with religious enthusiasm and traditional fervour across Mizoram on Monday.

Churches of various denominations held special services and congregational singing called 'Zaikhawm' to celebrate the day. Similar church services will be held in the evening and Zaikhawm at night.

Celebrations began on Christmas Eve, locally known as 'Urlawk Zan', during which worship service and congregational singing were organised.

The grand celebration was held on Monday during which church service, sermons on the birth of Jesus and congregational singing were organised in the churches.

Community feasts, which form an integral part of the Christmas celebrations, will be held on Tuesday by most churches. Some churches, however, organised community feasts on Monday.

In Mizoram, which celebrated the centenary of the arrival of Christianity to the state back in 1994, Christmas is a blend of religion and traditions.

Notwithstanding the English way of celebrations, the proselytised Mizos follow their own way of celebrating Christmas in tune with their traditions.

The state government has banned fireworks to ensure peaceful and pollution-free celebrations.

According to the police, no law and order problem has been reported from anywhere in the state so far on Monday.

Several NGOs, political parties and churches have reached out to orphanages, rehabilitation centres and poor families, donating charity both in cash and kind in the pre-Christmas period.

Historians recorded that the first Christmas on Mizoram's soil was celebrated in 1871, not by the Mizos but by the invading colonial British troops near the Tuivai River on the present-day Mizoram-Manipur border. Mizo warriors had attacked the British soldiers during the celebrations. PTI