Bhubaneswar: Incessant rain failed to dampen the spirits of thousands of people including children and their parents, who thronged the St Vincent’s Church, the catholic church at Satyanagar in Bhubaneswar to experience Christmas.
The Church had decorated Christmas trees, and images of nativity but there was no Santa Claus, the red and white saint, whose gifts are the stuff that childhood fantasies are made of.
But when they exited the Church and found Uncle Santa Claus outside, their joy knew no bounds. But this Santa was different. The Red and White Uncle Santa looked just like they had imagined but he was there along with a costumed superhero, Dedi Loku (Tree Man in the Kui language), the green superhero. With the support of volunteers of Bakul Foundation, Santa Claus and Dedi Loku gave tree gifts to people.
Shouts of “Gacha Neba Gacha, Santa Deuchi Gacha” chorused from the 20 odd College going volunteers of Bakul Foundation. Santa himself was heard shouting and singing, “Santa Ho Ho Ho Ho”. Many people were pleasantly surprised at Santa Claus speaking in Odia.
As the children, youth and adults came to get themselves clicked with Santa, he had a green message. He said, “We all associate Christmas with trees. We decorate evergreen trees such as fir and pine in Christmas because they are evergreen trees, and in winter, they symbolize life and growth. Its therefore, but natural that I have chosen to gift trees to people who were looking for gifts from me. And I urge everyone to gift plants instead of bouquets this New Year as bouquets are beauriful but dead but plants live and grow.”
Dedi Loku, the masked green superhero, said, “In this era of the Climate Emergency, the best gifts are trees to show that you care.”
About 250 saplings of Kesabardhani, Manjuati, Dalchini, Bela and Panasa were gifted today. The Bakul volunteers kept a record of all the people who took the plants so that they could follow up with them on their care. They also used the occasion to talk to everyone about the importance of parenting the plants and adopting the practice of gifting plants on any occasion such as birthdays, anniversaries, memorials etc so that there is a personal connection and ownership of the tree.
Bakul Foundation’s My Tree Campaign attempts a personal relationship with trees and promotes a culture of planting and gifting trees, Hence, it has been promoting gifting of plants in any cultural event associated with gifting such as Christmas, Diwali, Raksha Bandhan, Valentine’s Day etc.
Sujit Mahapatra of Bakul Foundation said that, “Every New Year, lakhs of bouquets are gifted to people in Bhubaneswar, and there is no meaning to them. Even if 1% of that is replaced with living plants, it has so much more meaning as Santa suggested since trees like the Christmas tree itself is a symbol of life and growth. One could get attractively packaged plants from Bakul Foundation, and get a beautiful handmade card with seeds complimentary with every gift plant.
