Singing Christmas carols during the Christmas season has become a common scene in every part of the country. The Christmas carols are generally sung at church festivals, Christmas parties, functions etc.
HelpAge Sri Lanka (HASL), one of the oldest institution, working for Senior Citizens especially for less- privileged people in the country recently organized an annual Christmas carols event for elderly citizens with the participation of Visually Handicapped persons.
The choir of singers, consist of ten members from the Sri Lanka Federation of the Visually Handicapped sang number of yesteryear Sinhala and English carols including the ever-popular Bethlehem Pura, Kalakatapera Bethleheme, Jesu Bilinda, We wish you a Merry Christmas and the Silent Night before a group of elders and also the staff members of HelpAge Sri Lanka. 
“Our members are studying everything with the Braille system and they could sing and also play musical instruments like normal people in the society,” a Choir member said.
Choir Leader Wimal Wickramasinghe who is also a lawyer by profession said many of their members are employed as Government teachers, telephone operators and also engaged in self-employment activities.
He said during Christmas season their Choir is invited by churches, tourist hotels, banks, mercantile institutions and many other individual persons to perform X’mas carols and the Choir members are delighted to sing before the general public because they are not isolated by people in our society.
Wickramasinghe profoundly thanked HelpAge Executive Director Samantha Liyanawaduge and Director G.C. Mendis who was also the former Principal of Deaf and Blind School of Ratmalana for inviting them to HelpAge Sri Lanka this year and also during the last 20 years to sing carols as well as hymns before Senior Citizens.
“This is an encouragement to us as we are well aware that we are not forgotten by anybody in society.”
He said their Association members are indebted for all Sri Lankan institutions for inviting them to perform not only during Christmas season but also for other social and entertainment events to expose their inborn talents.
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