My
hometown Ramapuram hosted a great festival at the Forane church today. The
cyclone called as ‘Thaane’ had consumed many lives in Tamil Nadu and
Pondicherry. It had also brought rainfall to the southern districts of Kerala.
It had been raining till it was noon. But everything went calm by noon. I don’t
know whether this is to be called as a miracle. It should be a miracle as many people say.
While it was raining in the premises, the clouds drifted apart and the
festive procession and the prayers went really fine.
Until
a few years ago, this had been the festival for a huge lot of people. People
had come from far and wide. Those who are related to this place and those who
had once lived in this place had come for this festival. But when the people got
accustomed to their busy job schedule, they had got no time to come for this
great celebration. Anyhow, this year a giant mass was seen at the place.
I
expected better management. The crowd went in two lines for the procession. But
at times, it happened like the line broke off stuck in traffic and the people
who went in the front continued with the procession without knowing that the
people at their back were stuck in traffic.
There
were fireworks at various places where it drew majestic designs up in the sky.
The crowd contained not just the worshippers, but a huge lot of sellers who
wanted to sell off their stuffs. The balloon sellers, the ice cream shops, the
malabar sweet shops, the prayer book stalls and lot many shops filled up the
church premises.
This
festival is an occasion to meet the people far and wide together under the same
roof. It’s a sort of family gathering rather than a spiritual festival. This is
being conducted on the same date for years and so the regular flow of
worshippers is not getting decreased. The working class, the rich masses, the
middle class and the poor comes under the same roof during this fest. This is
the celebration that people of the region can have at the end of the year to
bid good bye to the current year and to welcome the new year with joy and
prayer.
The
church was constructed long ago and it had undergone many controversies during
the construction of a third new church. Anyhow, people weren’t talking anything
related to that during the time. The gossips, the chats, the telephone
conversations and merry making went fine among the masses while the prayers and
the rituals went smoother in the other side.
There
were lots of fireworks and it was appreciable that the people had contributed
too much to the smooth functioning of the festival. A huge amount of money
should have been spent just upon the fireworks itself. The ordinary, the
Chineese and the fireworks of various fashions drew designs and it had been
great fun for the huge masses of people who assembled to enjoy it.
Since
it’s on the way to Sabarimala, the roads were tarred in the recent and so it
had helped the people to reach there with ease. The high school ground had a
huge parking lot and so there was no difficulty for the people to park their
vehicles. The town was shining in the sparkling glitter of the fireworks and
the illuminations. This is something that one should never miss in life. I had
seen people coming from far and wide taking too much of pain just to continue
with their tradition of being at the forane church every year for this
festival.
I extend my prayful greetings to
all those who had come for the festival and to all those who had made
promises to come.
And
my hearty New Year greetings to you, my blog readers!
And
thanks to all those who appreciate my efforts to scribble something on a
notepad and then to type and upload it as a blog and upload it here!