Christmas Celebrated

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30943, 27 December 1965, Page 9

Christmas Celebrated

(N.Z. Press Assn. —Copyright.) BETHLEHEM, Dec. 26. The Holy Land celebrated Christmas Day with fervent prayers and gay festivities in crisp wintry sunshine.

Storm clouds dappled the rolling Judean hills with passing showers as church bells pealed throughout the night. But the sun broke out as Christmas dawned.

Pilgrims from • around the world knelt and kissed the spot, deep in a rock-hewn grotto in Bethlehem, where Christ was born. Most of Britain awoke to a bleak and cold Christmas morning. Only parts of Scotland had the real thing. Light snow showers were reported in north-east England, but they were not heavy enough to cover the ground.

London was deserted except for people travelling to and from early morning church services. Even children were remarkably absent from the streets.

Large congregations were

reported from churches throughout Britain. More than 1600 people attended a service at Canterbury Cathedral, conducted by the Archbishop, Dr. Michael Ramsey. Twenty-four members of the Royal Family are spend-! ing the holiday there. The Archbishop told his congregation in his Christmas message that in one country at least there was war !... in a few places there was sheer lust, greed and cruelty. But in the country where there was war, there was at least some peace and quiet today as both sides in Vietnam seemed to be honouring a Christmas truce. It was hailed by the Pope as noble and generous. He sent identical messages to the Head:? of State of both North and South Vietnam expressing joy at the truce and the hope that it would be a step towards brotherly peace throughout the country. Road safety officials announced today that there had been a marked drop in the number of road accidents so far this Christmas.

In Berlin, more than 100,000

West Berliners passed through the wall to spend Christmas day with relatives in East Berlin, United Press International reported. The West Berliners, laden with packages of food, clothing, toys and other gifts, poured through five crossing ' points in the wall. Today’s visits raised to more than 350,000, the total visits since the two-week Christmas pass period began on December 18. The wall will close again at midnight on January In Peking Christmas passed unnoticed by all except small groups of Chinese and foreign Christians. For others it was a normal working day. In Peking’s Boman Catholic churches, worshippers enshrouded in heavy padded ! coats, thick scarves and fur- | lined hats sang western Christmas hymns in Latin and I Chinese. , No Protestant churches held Christmas services.

Roman Catholics are the largest Christian denomination in China, which has less than four million Christians among i its 700 million people.