Celebration of Christmas eve at Sri Sarada Math in 2020

Christmas holds a special place for the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission as also for the Sri Sarada Math and Ramakrishna Sarada Mission, which celebrate the festival in their unique style. The temple is decorated beautifully and the photos of baby Jesus and that of Mary is placed at an altar and worshipped and offered food. Carols are sung followed by short addresses by nuns.
In the year 1886, about four months after Sri Ramakrishna’s exit from this world, Swami Vivekananda along with eight of his disciples gathered at a village called Antpur in the Hooghly district of West Bengal upon the invitation of Matangini Devi, the mother of one of his brother disciples.
They didn’t know it was Christmas Eve. After sunset they lit a fire, which is called Dhuni by traditional Hindu monks and sat around it to meditate. After meditating a long time Swami Vivekananda opened his eyes and spoke about the extraordinary life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He exhorted his brother monks to take up the vows of renunciation and service, keeping fire as witness.
The next morning they realised that the previous evening was the sacred Christmas Eve. Later, recalling the importance of the Antpur incident, Swami Shivananda said “It was at Antpur that our resolve to become a group grew more intense”