Christmas The Indian Flavour

The Indian Flavour

By Camil Parkhe

When the winds of changes in the progressive Catholic Church are strongly favouring the process of inculterasation in the various nationalist, its echoes are felt in some parts of India, too. For one Christian Community of Central Maharashtra, bought into the fold of Christianity only a century ago, presents a beautiful blend of the Christian Religion and Indian Culture. This assimilation of the basic values of Christianity and the Indian culture is most conspicuous especially how on the occasion of the Christmas season.

The process of inculturation has been rather spontaneous among these Christians due to their conversations only a century ago as well as for the fact they are a religious minority in this region. Many of the Jesuit priests in this who have been nurturing the Christian faith, especially those hailing from the same community, have also contributed a lot to the growth of the faith without wrongly identifying the religious practices with a certain fixed concept of culture.

Since the Catholic Church officially permitted the use of the local languages in the celebration of Mass more than a decade ago, there has been a sudden tilt towards Indianisation. The Christians scattered in the packets of Ahmednagar, Aurangabad, Pune Nasik and other districts display a typical example of this changing trend.

The basic assumption behind the inculturisation process is one can be a good Christian without forsaking his social and family traditions which do not fail in opposition with the Christian faith. Consequently efforts are made to incorporate the local ways of worshiping and expressing love towards their fellow beings. Christ, the word of God, chose the Hebrew community to appear into the world and to preach His gospel to mankind. “If the Lord had to appear in Maharashtra,” writes Fr. Prabhudhar, a Jesuit priest and Editor of “Niropya”, a popular local Marathi monthly, “there is no reason to believe that He would have been any different from the Maharashtrian man!”. This principal is put in practice by retaining noble social customs, language and cultural heritage without bringing in any drastic changes following the conversations. Consequently, the community, despite their religious minority, hardly finds itself alienated from the whole population.

The celebration of Christmas festival in various parts of the world invariably share some common characteristics like the carol singing, the crib stars and the Santa Claus, although again in each part, the local traditions are also blended in the universal celebration of the festival. Likewise, the Maharashtrians in this region have also made their own distinct contribution to the Christmas variety. Many of the Marathi hymns, composed by the late Rev. Narayan Vaman Tilak, a Brahmin Sanskrit pandit who embraced Christianity in the previous century, have been widely used by the Christian Community here for decades. The carols, written by Rev. Tilak, Fr. Hillary Fernandes from Bassein, Bombay, and others are sung in the Christian Church. The carol singing groups, locally known as the “Bhajan Mandali” – consisting of young and old – go from house to house during the Christmas season playing the traditional musical instruments like the harmonium, table, tal and sing the “Natal geet”.

The number of Catholics is proportionately much higher compared to the Protestants here, barring the exception of the urban areas. However, cases are not rare in this community when the same religious services are participated by the Christians, overcoming the bar of different denominations. When the Church leaders and theologians, representing the various sects, are examining the minute details of their own dogmas and of others, this community has gone miles ahead in bridging the gap between the sects in actual practice. Inter-sect marriages are also a common feature despite the frowning upon by the church authorities. In fact, when efforts are made to minimise the differences existing among the different Christian sects by organising the economical councils, the Christian community in this region has provided an ideal model for the Church leaders elsewhere to follow.

Christmas cards or the preparation of the crib are also interwoven in the current of incluturisation. The Shehasadan, a Jesuit centre in Pune had long since been printing Christmas cards with the traditional Indian symbols and background. The simplicity, poverty and joy, manifested during the first Christmas, is thus depicted by painting the holy family in the traditional robes of the Maharashtrian, Gujarati or even tribal families, thus enabling the local people to understand the real message of Christmas in a better way. The Snehasadan has succeeded in popularising these cards not only India but abroad also.

The influence of Diwali, a major festival which precedes Christmas, is also very much striking on Christmas celebrations. So the houses are illuminated with oil lamps. The house-wives and the young girls exhibit coloured rangolis on the verandas, wishing the passers-by a ‘Shubh Natal”. The fire-crackers, brought during the Diwali festival and a part of it specially reserved for the Christmas without the knowledge of the children, are also burst open during this time.

The birth of child Jesus or Bal Yeshu, is welcomed by the local Christians by attending the midnight mass. Despite the more convenient morning Masses, midnight Mass is still regarded as an essential actual for the Christmas spirit and as Churches – referred as Deul – are not yet very common in all the villages, the farmers from the remote places flock to the parish Church by bullock-carts, with any winter attaire available as the temperatures this season hit their lowest in this locality.

Although several of the Westernised forms of Christmas celebrations to these Christians, all of them are still embibed with the festive spirit in other rich forms of expressions. What is, of course, most obvious to the visitors here is the tastiests of sweets – ladoos, made up of different variety, Karanjee, Anarasi – distributed generously at homes, equally as freely to their Hindu brethren. And this spirit of harmony and sharing which the season of Christmas heralds, does not fade away in a week’s time but sustains the communities the rest of the year.