3853(I)_Christmas Carnival for children at Bathon community

By Thien Phong, SDB

Ba Thon, Vietnam, 27 December 2015 - During Christmas season, Bathon Novitiate held a Christmas fair for children in the local area. All children around Bathon parish from 4 to 15, both Catholic and non- Catholic could come to the carnival.

At 9:00 AM on Sunday, the Rector of the novitiate, Fr Joseph Nguyen Dinh Phuc, opened the Christmas fair which he was also the head of the organization committee. Talking to the children, he said some words about the Jubilee Year of Divine Mercy. He recalled the Love of God and urged the children to share love to one another. He wished them a day full of joy and happiness.

About 1.200 children came to join the Christmas fair. The Salesians of the community organized games with rewards and gifts. Every boy and girl received green free tickets to play games and used rose tickets to buy gifts at the mini ‘supermarket’. With this kind of tickets, they could also buy various food at the food-stall of the fair.

There were 40 game stalls well-prepared since 2 months ago. Some games also had the educational features. For some game-stalls, children needed to be in line to get some instructions before playing.

The most attractive stall of the Christmas fair this year was the food-stall. All of the food was prepared by the parish association of the Catholic mothers and was sponsored by Nestle and Milo company.

The Christmas fair was well organized and the children felt very happy with faces radiant with smiles. Two hundred Salesian cooperators and volunteers came to serve the children that day. At lunch, Father Rector on behalf of the community gave thanks to everybody who took part in holding the Christmas fair for children.