Annual feasts are a big thing in Kerala churches and are marked by 3 - 5 days of jam-packed activity, including not just prayers, but also entertainment for the parishioners like plays
staged by renowned theatre groups, light music orchestra, fireworks etc.
A church feast involves lots of expenditure because the whole church is painted, illuminated
with serial lights (for the duration of the feast), the whole complex gets a sprucing up etc.
And add to this the expenditure on the entertainment options mentioned earlier.
Depending on the number of parishioners, their cash-worthiness & ability/interest to spend,
the budgets vary from church to church. In my parish, the expenditure is divided equally
among a group of people (usually 50-60 people) who express interest in conducting the feast. And it comes to like Rs.2000 (50$) per person.
People offer to conduct the feast as a sort of thanksgiving for favours received. And it isn't
really necessary to be a Christian to be part of the group conducting the feast. We have had instances where people from the neighborhood (but not X'ian) being part of the group.
There has also been cases where some people who are not even from the town, offering to
do this as thanksgiving, because they had serious road accidents in front of the church (its a
bad curvy road) and still escaped unhurt.
And there are parishes where only 1 person conducts the full feast, with expenses running
from 0.5 to 1 million Rs (25000$). This is the case in the richer parishes and since there
would be more than one moneybag in town, how do you decide who gets the chance ?
Well, you bid for the right to conduct the feast and winning bids can get as high as a few
hundred thousand rupees. So, you first pay an obscene amount of money just to get the
right to conduct the feast and then shell out money to actually conduct the feast, making the total outgo anything from half a million to one million bucks.
A parish in Kerala was planning for their annual feast which was coming up in a month or so. Discussions were centred around what all expenditures are foreseen and approximately how much money would need to be collected from each person who put up his name as part of the conducting group. The group were clear in doing it in the best possible way, money being no issue.
So, they come up with the list of items planned, expenditure for each item etc, with the final
tally coming to a very considerable sum of money. While they are working out the details, the bishop of the diocese happens to drop in at the parish and joins the discussion.
Bishop : So, how is the planning for the feast going ?
Parishioner : Quite well, Your Excellency. We have listed out all the expenditure heads.
B : And what does the total expenditure estimate look like ?
P : We estimate the whole feast to cost around 0.8 million Rupees.
B : What ? You would be spending such a lot of money on a feast? Would it not be better if
you reduced the expenditure by cutting out the frills and instead spent the money saved
on the poor and the needy ?
P : ....Silence....
B : Continues his sermon about how this was not a done thing and so on and so forth.
The parishioners respond with silence, till one of them cannot control it any more.
P : If that be the case and this is a wasteful expenditure, could you please explain why you splurged Rs.1 million for your Skoda Octavia car ? Would the job of transporting you not
have been done equally well with a car costing half that amount or lesser ?
Everyone, including the bishop is shocked. The meeting ends there with the Bishop leaving
in a huff.
In my opinion, both sides had a valid point. Religious leaders should be leading by example, instead of by sermons. I know that Priests and Bishops do have quite some travelling to do
in discharging their duties and I for one, am not advocating that they use public transport.
But at the same time, they can set an example by buying a car that fits their needs, instead
of opting for a car that is seen as a symbol of luxury. After all they are supposed to be leading
a spiritual life, away from the pulls of material pleasures.
And as the Bishop rightly said, blowing up such a lot of money for a feast is something not
done. More so, when we have people around that find it tought to even get 3 square meals
a day or do not have a proper roof over their heads or find it difficult to afford their kid's education. For instance, part of or even the full amount allocated for firecrackers could
instead be spent on helping such people. Would also reduce noise/air pollution.
But then, from a recent real-life experience (of the late Mr.Peter of our parish, which I will
hopefully post in the coming days), I know that while we are ready to loosen our wallets in
the name of God, religion etc, we would not part with even a few rupees to help alleviate a
fellow human being's suffering.
And for the Bishop, I hope his next car is a more economical one - a Suzuki should do fine. Though I would not be really surprised if he upgraded to the Skoda Laura or God forbid,
a Mercedes-Benz, the ultimate in snob value.
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