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Christmasis one of the biggest Christian holy days celebrated throughout theworld. Though it is celebrated in almost the same way in all countries,there are still some old unique customs which differ form country tocountry. The aim of the Balkan South European countries led by Croatia thattook up this monumental task was to present this wonderful eventdescribing the birth of Jesus in a way which will be familiar to allChristians. They also wished that the warmth of Christmas touch eventhose who don�t observe Christmas in their cultures and just to make iteven more interesting, they had to conjure up a bit of CroatianChristmas. There is someting which is common to all Christians and that isGod�s temple, the church, a place in which lots of Christians feelclosest to God. Everyone who enters a church must notice magnificentcolourful stained-glass windows which together with the sun make theinterior of the church a special and sublime place. The Croatian magicwas that they set the same atmosphere through decorations made ofcolourful plastic sheets. This project was blessed by Bhagawan an year and a half ago and theteam has worked tirelessly since then. Every thing was handmade. Theyspent a full year to make the individual plastic stained sheets whichwhere then made into panels to surround the pillars in the Sai KulwantHall and as hangings all around the hall. There were also panels abovethe Sanctum Sanctorum and directly facing it. The Sai Kulwanth Hall hadtransformed into a church. In addition to the decoration of Sai Kulwanth Hall, the group ably assisted by youth from South Africa, went about decorating the entireashram with a special focus on the Western Canteen. While a Snowman andSanta had settled down in the left side of the lawns in front of thecanteen overlooking the Nativity Scene, displaying the birth of Jesusand the arrival of the three wise men, the right side was a riot oflight and colours. A christmas tree of light in the centre wassurrounded by various Santas circumambulating it with bright whitestars forming the circumference. Another similar altar was set up inside the canteen, with its ownchristmas tree and cr�che. The Book Store was the other majorbeneficiary of the decoration team with its own tree and lights. Ornaments and other decoration to the extent possible, were made outof ecological materials and are ment to be reused. Only the low-costmaterials have been bought in all the countries whose Sai devoteesparticipate in the Project. Elements that represent the Western butalso local Christmas tradition have been represented in an originalway: the focus is made here on vitrage coloured style decorations andwheat grass sprouting. While doing preparations, a group of almost 500 people had beendoing the spiritual practice of repeating the Divine Name to charge theambience and they state with emphasis that while hand making theChristmas decoration, all of them have been turned towards God andexperienced His omnipresence, His love, His teachings, caring words,forgiveness and help. Source: http://www.theprasanthireporter.org __._,_.___
