The Biblical Rite and the people of Edenganni

The revolution started on the holy week of 2013. That dude from Buenos Aires  Pope Francis who occupied the highest chair of Vatican on 13th March 2013, stepped out of his sanctum sanctorum on 28th of March, his first Maundy Thursday as pope and proceeded straight towards a youth detention centre where he washed and kissed the feet of young prisoners both men and women!

Why hath he come down from the throne? He had the privilege  of washing the feet of men in robes of varied ages and nationalities; equally qualified men would assist him in pouring the water from ornate pitcher and wipe the feet with the  best of linen!

But he is a man of the people who wants to show to the world that God is with the lesser privileged people and men and women are equal and  are integral part of his God’s kingdom!

Years ago when a lowly priest did it in his parish where he washed and kissed the feet of 6 men and 6 women on a Maundy Thursday hell broke loose in the town of Tiruchirapalli. Both the clergy and the lay people joined hands in abusing him. Wall posters were full of condemnation and sarcasm in an utterly male chauvinistic fashion. He was warned by the higher ups for his preposterous deeds. And his anticipated promotion in the hierarchy was held back for eternity.

This person is my uncle, a man of letters and still a man of the people. As a young lad in his village, my uncle had witnessed the washing of the feet by various families on allotted Thursdays of the Lenten season. How is it that this rite, a prerogative of the priestly class came to be conducted by the family people? That I think is what we call tradition. It should have been happening for some generation and had now become a custom to be followed!

 All the while my uncle should have been wondering “Why boys were invariably chosen as the 12 apostles  and never a girl? If each one of us was God’s children  why girls and people from other communities were never even considered?” When this man became a priest he decided “what my village could not do I will do it in my parish. In my place there would be no caste differentiation and my apostles would be both men and women.”

The little village continued in the same old ways but as days went by the ritual saw its own demise what with people moving to the city and the remaining  few, unenthusiastic to celebrate this ritual.

 For us children the festival of washing the feet at Edenganni  was in itself an oasis in the stark and severe Lenten season where fasting on all 7 Fridays, vegetarian meals for 40 days  and small Way of the Cross everyday and larger variety lasting for 2 hours on Fridays to contemplate on the passions of Christ on an empty stomach was the much adhered routine. When you are young your stomach rules over the mind. The fourth Thursday usually was our family’s turn. We were living in a small town  for our studies and with the arrival of bullock cart  early on the Wednesday inaugurated our own two day festivity till our return Home. In those days the school usually closed for summer vacation before the Holy Week.

The proceedings for Thursday celebration was indeed an elaborate one.

A minimum variety of 12 vegetables has to prepared signifying 12 apostles of Jesus. Apart from  the regular sambar, puli kuzambu, rasam and buttermilk, appalam and payasam and tomato jam would be prepared for 300 people. The cutting of the vegetables was a much anticipated affair among the relatives. After the night prayers in the chapel and the dinner in their respective homes, the  ladies would gather  in our house with their cutting implements. It was indeed a happy occasion accompanied with plenty of laughter and exchange of pleasantries. We children had the single devoted job of peeling the  beans soaked  earlier in the morning. It was a fun job where  we compete in getting  the peeled beans jump  high up and fall right into the vessel by pressing the beans with the thumb and  index finger.  This peeled beans with drumstick made into a kootu was my mum’s speciality!

Uncles would join us later to cut the big vegetables like pumpkins, an eagerly anticipated event for the children. As soon as the first  pumpkin was cut one among us would be quick enough to collect its innards intertwined with seeds and we would start the process of separating the seeds from the gluey stuff and ate the  slippery seeds by a perpendicular thrust in between two molars!

Mum and dad would fast on that day while we children were excused.

In the morning an elongated pit at the back garden would be dug up to serve as a huge stove where rows of big vessels would be kept under the log fire to cook rice, dhal etc.  Inside in small stoves (they too were log stoves) ladies would be preparing various dishes. At the stroke of 12, the 12 apostles would be ready  for the ceremony after taking bath in the tank behind the chapel called "Pappa Kulam". Dad would also be ready after his bath. In the mean time we would have plucked a variety of  flowers from the garden at Pillaiyar (Lord Ganesha) temple (which we called nandhavanam) and kept the stool, water and flowers ready for dad to start the process . With a small prayer the process of washing the feet would start. Even the naughtiest among the boys  would approach the stool with great reverence with folded hands. The whole congregation would join in singing a song specially sung for the occasion ( explaining the Biblical story of Jesus washing the feet but which is lost to the posterity except for the first few lines) The water thus collected was taken around the chapel with which we crossed ourselves and then along with the flowers it was reverently thrown back into the pappa kulam. Usually in the big city churches, as the priest washed the feet, the person who takes the role of the Apostle would receive a gift but not in Edenganni. For the 12 apostles a royal welcome with the royal feast awaited at home!

The apostles now followed dad  who led them to the main hall of the house where the best of the banana leaves will be placed on both sides allowing  a middle path way.

At the house  a person would be waiting with a white wet towel which dad reverently received. After the apostles were seated  rice dhal and ghee would be served but the apostles should resist the temptation of gorging on the food! They indeed had an important duty to perform. As they start mixing the dhal rice my dad would  kneel down  in front of the first apostle and  beg for food in his wet towel  and  would move on in the kneeling posture till he was done with the last  of the 12.  At times some of the apostles would start crying as they placed the food on dad’s towel seeing an elder kneeling for food! What a beautiful lesson in humility and  what a lesson to the children that the master should always be a servant  to his people! Once  the apostles are served the delicious food and the leaves would be laid for all the other guests.  A little quantity of the dhal rice would be placed in the leaves  as  a sacred dish to all the guests  and only after this was done they would start serving the food. Once the apostles finished their feast those leaves would be collected separately and  taken straight to the manure pit  where a  hole was dug in the middle to throw the leaves in and always with a prayer in the heart that the next year’s harvest should be as bountiful!

For the night  a special feast would be awaiting  just for the relatives. A blend of all the leftovers would be heated up  and this fragrant concoction would  be mixed with rice and served in the lotus leaves as big balls! My mouth salivates on the thought of this ambrosia!

Today for our part we are trying to revive this beautiful ritual and as  a tribute to our dear uncle  our 12 apostles are beyond caste and creed and belong to both sex. As regards ritual song we have composed appropriate words  and though we feel nostalgic and sad about losing the old one  we hope we to compensate!