Thrissur: The city of Thrissur was painted read Sunday as thousands of Santaclaus' walked around the Thekkinkad grounds for the Buon Natale, the grand Christmas carol procession. Wide variety of floats, art forms, musical ensembles and Angels accompanied the Santas. Both men and women, the young and the old, donned Santa Claus costumes. The floats of Vadakkunathan temple, Taj Mahal, Saint Peters Basilica, depicting communal amity, were seen.
Buon Natale, (Happy Christmas), has been organized by the Archdiocese of Thrissur, in association with Thrissur citizenry.
The faithful from various parishes of the diocese arrived in the city to participate in the procession. The preliminaries for the procession started at 3 pm on the premises of Saint Thomas college. A huge crowd had already gathered when the procession stared at 5.30 pm. Minister KC Joseph flagged off the procession.
Chief Whip Thomas Unniyadan, MLAs P.A. Madhavan and M.P Vincent participated. District collector A Kaushigan, Mayor Ajitha Jayarajan, district panchayat president Sheela Vijayakumar, Arch Bishop Mar Andrews Thazhath and leaders of various political and cultural organizations led the procession. The procession which went through the main roads in the city returned to the premises of St Thomas college around 8 pm. Minister CN Balakrishnan inaugurated the cultural procession held after the procession.
Last year, 18,112 people donned the Santa's clothes in the Buon Natale procession in Thrissur, to set the Guinness World Record for “Largest Gathering of Santa Claus.”
