Sri Lanka Embassy in Washington D.C. celebrates Christmas 2022

The Embassy of Sri Lanka in Washington D.C. celebrated Christmas on Saturday, 17 December 2022 at the chancery premises whilst streamed live via zoom and Facebook.

Ambassador Mahinda Samarasinghe extended his seasonal greetings to the audience both attended virtually and in person and recalled the milestones that Sri Lanka Embassy achieved during the year 2022 whilst acknowledging the in-kind assistance provided by the International Non-Government Organisations in the US in coordination with the Embassy. 

During his speech, Ambassador Samarasinghe enunciated that Christmas is the time to forge bonds of brotherhood and sisterhood and Sri Lanka is a multi-religious, multi-lingual and multi-ethnic society and nothing exemplifies this multicultural diversity more than the season of goodwill, peace and harmony.

Msgnr. John Paul Pedrera, representing the Apostolic Nunciature in Washington D.C. stressed that the universality of the message of Christmas was unity among all peoples of the world following the invoking of blessings to the audience.

Bible readings in the two official languages of Sri Lanka, Sinhala and Tamil as well as link language English were delivered by Embassy staff and a member of the Sri Lankan community.  The staff of the Embassy and their children sang Christmas carols. Santa Claus also visited the celebration and Ambassador Samarasinghe distributed gifts to the children.

The event was organised by the Embassy staff and attended by the members of their families. The Sri Lankan community in the US also virtually attended the event.