Author:
Publication: Indian Currents
Date: September 29, 2002
A Marian shrine in Karnataka resembled
a Hindu festival site as thousands of saffron-clothed devotees overflowed
the area to celebrate the Blessed Mother's birthday.
The devotees were dressed that way
because they took a vow to wear saffron during an annual novena run by
St. Mary's Basilica in Bangalore in preparation for Sept. 8, the Feast
of the Nativity of the Blessed Mother. More than 3 million people, mostly
Hindus, visit the shrine yearly, assistant parish priest Father Edward
David told UCA News, but the greatest rush is during the annual novena
days.
Wearing saffron during the festival
has been in vogue since the shrine was built 300 years ago, the priest
explained. He added that though he believes Hindus started the practice,
Christians now wear saffron during their novena. Traditionally, saffron
color is associated with Indian culture and worn mainly by Hindus. The
pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party, which heads the federal coalition government,
has chosen saffron as its official color for election campaigning.
Notre Dame Sister Divya, a volunteer
at the shrine, says, "saffronizing" the feast is part of "natural inculturation."
Jayaram Shetty, a BJP leader, says he finds nothing wrong in an Indian
using saffron, which is associated with Indian mysticism and renunciation.
"It is more a cultural issue than a religious one," he told UCA News.
Father T Jabamalai, Bangalore archdiocese's
vicar general, says the "saffron custom" began when Christians built a
chapel for the Blessed Mother between two Hindu temples in the city. The
priest, the basilica's acting parish priest, told UCA News many visitors
to the temples now also pray at the shrine, which was designated a basilica
in 1974. Father David said people make a vow to visit the shrine in saffron
during the feast to receive favours from the Blessed Mother. After the
ritual, the saffron clothes are donated to the poor and never kept at home,
unless the vow is for three consecutive years, the priest explained. Parameshara,
a middle-aged Hindu who came with his wife, told UCA News they visit the
shrine every year during the feast. He says they consider the Blessed Mother
their "family goddess."
Rukmini, 36, a Hindu widow, says
she visits the shrine because she believes the Blessed Mother cured the
paralysis she sustained three years ago in an accident that killed her
husband. Sister Divya, who brought Rukmini to the basilica, told UCA News
that most devotees claim to have experienced comparable "miraculous recoveries"
from physical and spiritual ailments. The nun said she has also observed
several people suffering from marital and family discord finding solace
at the shrine.
John Prabhu, a 30-year-old Catholic
who came with his wife, said they donned saffron clothes because they were
blessed with a son after praying to the Blessed Mother. Father Gilbert
Raj, secretary to the archbishop of Bangalore, recalled that as a child
he too attended the novena in saffron. Another feast-related practice is
collecting alms during the novena period and giving the money to the shrine.
The donations help shrine authorities host an annual "mass marriage program"
for the poor during novena days.
This year, 48 couples were married
at the basilica on Sept. 1. Philomine Raj of the Basilica Meds Association
told UCA News more than 1,000 couples were married at the shrine since
the practice began 21 years ago. Raj said the association selects the couples
from various parishes in the archdiocese. Basilica authorities buy the
brides' wedding dresses and the golden "tali" (pendant) worn by bridegrooms
in southern India as a sign of marriage. The basilica parish also hosts
the wedding meal and gives each couple some "pocket money." (UCAN)
