VARIOUS: Tsunami survivors offer prayers on Christmas at renowned church in devastated pilgrimage town while Christians and Buddhists hold solemn Christmas Day services in tsunami-hit Thailand ahead of one year anniversary of disaster.

Record ID: 1380583

  • Title: VARIOUS: Tsunami survivors offer prayers on Christmas at renowned church in devastated pilgrimage town while Christians and Buddhists hold solemn Christmas Day services in tsunami-hit Thailand ahead of one year anniversary of disaster.
  • Date: 25th December 2005
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF CONGREGATION RECEIVING COMMUNION
  • Embargoed: 9th January 2006 11:25
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes,Religion
  • Reuters ID: LVA4RO2G6B56P863O0ARE73EBC04
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: Hundreds of pilgrims, mostly tsunami survivors offered special midnight mass prayer on Christmas day (December 25) in a famous church in Velankanni in India's southern Tamil Nadu state.
    Velankanni in India's southern Tamil Nadu state, famous for the sea-facing Marian Shrine, was one of the worst hit in last year's tsunami, with about 850 deaths, 300 of whom were pilgrims, swept away while strolling on the beach close to the church or shopping at stalls.
    Children dressed as fairies and Mother Mary marched along with priests for the midnight mass.
    People who survived the tsunami last year, said that they had come to offer their thanks at the shrine.
    "Last year, I was here in Velankanni when the tsunami had occurred. I had seen so many people die last year. This year, I have come to thanks giving mass to Mother. It is because of Her, I am alive so I have come here to say my thanks," said Suresh Anthony, a survivor.
    Nearly 20 million pilgrims from all over India and southeast Asia visit the 17th century Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health at Velankanni in Nagapattinam district, south of the state capital Chennai, in search of healing for physical ailments.
    At Ban Muang Temple in Thailand, scores of tsunami victims and their relatives attended a simple Buddhist ceremony to remember their loved ones on the eve of the Indian Ocean disaster's first anniversary.
    The December 26 tragedy killed an estimated 231,000 people in Asia and Africa with Thailand suffering 5,395 local and foreign casualties.
    In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, the temple served as a temporary morgue for the hundreds of bodies of foreign holiday-makers and Thais dragged from the waves and debris.
    On Sunday, it hosted around 300 mourners -- both Thai and foreigners -- seeking a chance for quiet reflection before Monday's (December 26) planned mass commemorations.
    While many of the physical scars of the tsunami have disappeared with the reconstruction in Thailand, the mental scars of victims -- and orphans in particular -- remain.
    Nearby, inside the Calvary Chapel Christians celebrated a solemn Christmas with folk songs, prayers and tears for loved ones killed in the disaster nearly one year ago.
    James Garwood, a backpacker-turned-missionary, tried to console 30 worshippers, most of them new converts since the tsunami nearly wiped out their fishing village, Ban Nam Khem, on December 26.
    New Thai Christians sat on plastic chairs or the concrete floor, shoulder-to-shoulder with a handful of foreign volunteers working in the rebuilt village.
    Overcome with emotion many, wept and comforted each other.
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