CHICAGO: Beautiful strains of melodious carols, euphonic musical presentations, colorful dances, message centric skits and inspiring sermons marked the spectacular Christmas Party organized by Willow Creek Community Church (WCCC) on Friday, December 19, in South Barrington, a northwest suburb of Chicago.
The attendees ranged from toddlers to seniors and were dressed in vibrant and colorful Indian attire. Despite adverse weather, over 4750 joined the Christmas ceremony in the main auditorium and 1300 plus in Indian-Style Christmas Party after the service.
The purpose was to organize the largest Indian Christmas celebration
Saray Rodriguez was the coordinator of the event. The Indian-Style Christmas Party full of entertainment such as live traditional Indian Christmas music, dramatized presentation of the Christmas story, vibrant, authentic, and beautiful Indian dance performances including Christmas Bhangra, Raas and Bharatanatyam were the highlights of the celebrations.
Christmas gift door/prizes, a traditional children’s Christmas Pageant, Mehendi, photo ops, children’s face painting, free Christmas gifts for all children, and all-you-can-eat Indian (and American) food were added attractions. The first 300 ladies also received free stocking-stuffers provided by Salon Elite!
The program began with traditional Christmas songs sung by young children. Saray Rodriguez welcomed everyone to an Indian-Style Christmas Party and introduced Cheetra Thakkar. Yeshu Jayanthi was marked by a colorful Veena recital by Saraswathi Ranganathan enthralling the crowd with foot-tapping rhythms of Holly Jolly Christmas, with Tony Karasek on Sitar and the skillful Dhananjay raining beats on the tabla. Tony then wonderfully played ‘Oh Emmanuel’ on the Sitar with Kalyan ably accompanying on the tabla.
Saraswathi’s Veena recital held the gathering in sway with an eclectic appealing mix of Carnatic improvisation, popular Christmas carols “Silent Night”, “Joy to the World”, “Oh Christmas Tree” concluding with a rollicking “We wish you a merry Christmas”! Saraswathi once again demonstrated that she is one of the most versatile artists in Veena playing multiple genres, skillfully interpreting sounds in novel ways that touch the heart of the critic and the connoisseur.
Kalapadma Bharatanatyam Dance Academy presented a group dance for Christmas. This was choreographed by Smt. Ruth Varghese, the Artistic director of Kalapadma Dance Academy. They did Malhar Thillana composed by Krishna Janakiraman and Agam the Band. They combined a popular Christmas song to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.
Participants were Tina Shah, Nirvani Jairam, Pavani Jairam, Rebecca Joseph, Rainu Thomas, Anjali Varghese, Niyati Patel, Jenish Bulsara, and Tina Varkey. The audience loved their dance and gave them a lot of compliments.
Ministry of Bhangra performed Bhangra to Punjabi folk songs. “Sirre utte maave wale pagh ban de, oh gaale kainte soneh ne”.
“Willow Creek Community Church Christmas Celebration was one of the largest and unique because of all different language speaking Indians regardless of their religion attended and enjoyed Indian-Style Christmas Party,” said Verghese Chako
Upcoming 2015 events are Ladies’ High Tea – January 31, 2015: Successful Relationship Seminars – Wednesdays in January and Diwali Celebration in November and Christmas Program in December.
Asian Media USA
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