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BARKUR
FEAST(S) If saints are our intercessors, God's are our festival winners. Think of any seasonal feast and there you are with a smile, spreading happiness to your surroundings. A tinkling of joy and fervor of magnitude could be seen, in the environment and in the family and in everyone around you. Though nowadays it means to shell out a pocket full of money, in those good old days it was a mere joy and a time of merriment by spending just some loose change. Feasts were vehemently shared not only by the family or by the individuals alone, but also by all the communities, irrespective of religion, caste, or creed. Purchasing new dresses or new clothes, painting of the houses, simple decorations, purchase of new commodities, cleaning the courtyards, in order to produce an atmosphere of glow everywhere. Everyone would be busy and no one raised the eyebrow when feasts were at hand but saw to it that it had its due, by celebrating rightfully. I
being a Barkur product, I remember a few festivals that were celebrated
in my homeland. Namely, St.
Peter's holdlem festh (Dodda Habba), the annual parish-feast in the
month of December, Barkur Ther Habba (car festival), Ganapathi Habba,
Pataki (crackers), Deepavali Habba (festival of lights) and then the
local neighbors celebrating Tulsi
Pooja, chikku gudi genda, St. Peter's feast (June 29th), or our favorite
Monti Fest (Birth of our
Lady the mother of Jesus Christ.) When you read these names of the
festivals, you know what I am up to. I can write volumes of my happy
memories of my younger days and the time I spent during these feasts,
but I rather enjoy/feel the feelings and say very
little here. Each one you have many a thing to add and enjoy than
my tiny tit-bits here with its lullabies. I know you feel 'at home' with
the smile and find out what is it that follows as to the festival
experience of mine. ST.
PETER'S HOLDLEM FESTH (Parish feast in December). December is the
twelfth month of every year! Though it's the last month, it has special
events; namely, the birth
of Jesus Christ - a world event and the feast of St. Peter's Church,
Barkur, which marks a
special event for all the Barkurians all over the world, particularly to
those who can attend the same down in Barkur. Hence, everyone has a
reason to look for this month
to come down, time and time again, to celebrate and share this feast and
joy. For
me, the parish feast meant: new clothes, a holiday, a time to eat
sugarcoated sweets (locally called mitai) and to purchase the crib
materials for the Christmas, and leave the church grounds with an ice
cream stick melting in my hand. Before which, I would look for my God
parents to put their right hand in their pocket and bless me with a big
sizeable blessing which was the main shot of the day. (Instead of
directly asking or begging for coins, we asked for God's blessings!)
As an Altar boy, I found my altar
boys clothes washed and I dressed well to experience the solemnity
amidst two figure priests at the altar for the celebration of the
Eucharist. At home, a number of relatives would come as this feast was
meant - communion of relatives. The
mid day would have a sumptuous meal with varieties of dishes (sanna and
dukra maas!) and some dances by Koraga communities with some raga tunes
of the drum. The evening would invite for a drama (with entrance
tickets) in the parish premises by the C.Y.M. members. This would enable
a couple of youngsters to expose their talents for hundreds of people to
laugh and get entertained and contribute to the youth C.Y.M. with joyous
festive mood. When the last drama curtain falls, there would be talks on
the way home about the jokers on the stage, reenacted by the children
and women with similar or broken or made up dialogues, cherishing the
happening of the drama as one by one lighted their Chood (palm leaf
torches) to illuminate the way to reach home, and
to have a good snoring night, to start the next day fresh to go to
school and other places of work, or, in other words, back to business as usual. At
the festival grounds, there would be special stalls which invited
danger. The wind would blow
the tents up in the air, and make them land softly nearby. Some children
had balloons and some had pimpri (whistles), which of course
entertained the children, but
irritated the elderly, and checked the hearing capacities of those who
had ears. In
fact one really forgets that there exists a word - 'patience' on that
day. What would
attract those days the people and the festive invitees was the draw of
lucky dip which had the living prize 'the Cock' which counted its last
moments of life to be the prey of some lucky winners family meal. The
housie-housie made the youngsters to
remain till the last ingredient is added at home for the saar. The
religious articles sold
mostly were the Khatholic Panchang and a few scapulars or frail
rosaries. No doubt everyone remembers that 'Shetty Ice Cream' which
dominated/ruled the day. This
feast would be incomplete to anyone if I don't recall the vesper evening
fire works. Ah! The Indian national bird spinning/turning round on a
pivot with different colored fire crackers, lighting the minds of all
hose present with admiration, a particular fire works circling in
rounds, ringa ringa rosy, pocket full of posy, made some crying children
to shut up and look at moms' big bright bulging eyes and brothers'
glaring faces with amazing wonderment. Those gun shot crackers would go
up above the church belfry and all the sparks would jump high like the
stars of the sky and land on those admirers - in particular the mitai
vendors. In the bargain some would give less laddues and some would run
away from these stalls just to escape the sparks,
thus letting some boys to help themselves with the sweets or oranges! However,
the end of fire work show would be signaled by the Perampalli Musical
Band leading the 'Pirgent' (the main generous/benevolent/pompous
sponsor) on his way home. Today,
it is a different story altogether about Barkur feast. However, the
spirit is the same but relatives have no time to visit their other
relatives and the people have much to enjoy other than having such feast
once a year. May be feasts are more of a burden today,
than a feast for feast's sake! May
be we should initiate "Besanv dee", translation "Bless
Me", an age-old practice, with a hidden motive to obtain a few
coins from the elders,
besides invoking for God's blessings. Fr.
Cyprian D'Souza. For a glimpse of the life at Barkur as remembered by Barkurians, check archives |
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Barkur, located in Udupi Taluk, Karnataka, India. 576 210 |
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Copyright Kishoo, Barkur 2002. |
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