St Joseph’s School in Darjeeling started its 125th year celebrations on Tuesday.

The celebration started with the Archbishop of Calcutta, Thomas D’Souza, organising Mass at the newly-built JMJ (Jesus-Mary-Joseph) auditorium, which was inaugurated by him on Tuesday.

The archbishop (centre in picture), the bishop of Darjeeling Stephen Lepcha (left) and Santey Mathew (right), the rector of North Point school, later released balloons in the air.

The institution, called North Point because of the place where it is located, completes 125 years on February 13, 2014.

The organisers have lined up a series of events through the year, and more than 200 alumni from outside India are expected to attend a weeklong programme starting in October.

The alumni of the school include former kings of Bhutan and Nepal apart from other members of the royal families.

The celebration was slated to be inaugurated by the Apostolic Nuncio (ambassador of Vatican to India) Archbishop Salvatore Penacchio.

He, however, could not attend the programme as he had to leave for the Vatican to attend the ceremony for the installation of the Pope.

Text by Vivek Chhetri, picture by Suman Tamang