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MULTI-HUED Festivals are an integral part of our diverse culture

Festivals are inseparable and an integral part of our diverse culture and people leave no chance to indulge in revelry and merry making as and when an opportunity arises. The week has brought cheer and smiles to Christians, Hindus and Muslims, as Good Friday, Id Milad and Holi cued up in line to The pious and prayer filled Good Friday soon makes way for joyous celebration in the form of Easter and needless to say the entire country will be in a festive and joyous mood this week. The fact that these festivals have come on a Friday has added more fervour to the celebrations, giving them a long weekend. After 40 days of Lent, Christian Community celebrated this entire week as ‘Holy Week’ and are looking forward to the joy of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, celebrated as Easter, on March 23. For faithful Christians, the week was marked by prayer, meditation, penance and finally joy. Christians observe Saturday evenings as Easter Vigil through various church services. Celebration at homes on Easter Sunday is often equated with preparing traditional Christian delicacies, the mouth watering sannas (idlis) to be eaten with Coconut milk chicken curry or various other dishes prepared with different variety of meat. Easter Eggs, an egg shaped bakery sweet filled with goodies is the only special delicacy associated with Easter.

While Christians observe Good Friday commemorating the suffering and death of Jesus through various observations and services of worship, Id-Milad is observed to commemorate the birth and death of Prophet Mohammed. The celebration however focuses more on the birth of the prophet. It is observed on the 12th day of the lunar calendar and is marked by sermons and reading Koranic versus, narrating the life and noble deeds of the Prophet.

M.H. Sharief, originally from Chitradurga employed in Yenepoya Medical College and his wife Qudisa Sultana of Hyderabad, based in Mangalore for the last eight years, feel there is a lot of difference in the way the festival is celebrated both in the Northern part of Karnataka and in Hyderabad.

“In Chitradurga, mosques are brightly decorated and processions form a part of the celebration. But in Mangalore, it is basically restricted to ‘durud’ – which is repeating the Koranic verses many times and observing it at homes with gaiety and pomp. Muslims feed the poor and the needy people to mark the birth anniversary of prophet.” Close on the heels of Holy week comes the Holi – the Festival of colours, celebrated on Friday again. Essentially a North Indian festival, Holi has found its way to the south and to Mangalore which has metamorphosed into a cosmopolitan city in the last few years due to the presence of a large number of North Indian student community, whose fondness for celebrating Holi on the streets is familiar to all.

The Holi bhang is the other major attraction of this festival. Dahi Wada and a kind of sweet called ‘ghuiya’, prepared with Maida, rolled into rotis and stuffed with sweets is popular during Holi. Urvashi Panth, a Maharashtrian settled in Mangalore says: “I have missed the zest and verve usually associated with Holi celebration in the North. But slowly Mangalore is also experiencing the colours of joy, equated with life filled with energy.”

Festivals are the quintessential part of our unique culture adding vivacity and fervour to our lives.

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