RITUALS AND FESTIVALS

South Asian society is religiously pluralistic and rituals and festivals are an integral part of community life. Christians have to decide whether to participate in these festivities and how to respond to them.

There is no easy solution, but it may help us to move towards a better understanding if we begin by defining our terms. Rituals are ceremonies consisting of a series of actions performed in a prescribed order by an individual or a community. Although we generally associate them with religious rites, there are also social rituals (for example, we are taking part in a social ritual whenever we greet someone by shaking hands with them). Any repeated action that has symbolic meaning may be considered a ritual. Rituals can have physical, spiritual, social and psychological dimensions and are commonly used in celebrations of births and marriages, at funerals, and when making oaths or seeking purification.

Festivals, on the other hand, are occasions of communal feasting or celebration, and often have religious, seasonal and cultural significance. They may last for only one day or for several days, and in the course of them people will observe certain rituals. Festivals meet specific social, psychological or religious needs, and create solidarity in a community or between families. Some festivals like Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are purely cultural. Others celebrate the changing seasons, as when agrarian societies celebrate harvest festivals or the phases of the moon or the position of the sun.

Religious festivals celebrate specifically religious events. For example, for Hindus, Sikhs and Jains, the festival of Diwali celebrates the victory of good over evil.

In a society where culture and religion are closely intertwined, it can be difficult to distinguish the religious and cultural elements in rituals and festivals. An obvious way to do this would be to investigate their origins, but even that may not clarify the issues. For example, eggs are universally used as a symbol of new life, especially in relation to the festival of Easter, but historically the roots of this symbolism are pagan. Yet the church has seen no need to refuse to use the egg as a powerful symbol.

Christians are called to be salt and light in the communities they live in. The challenge before us is to adapt rituals and festivities without compromising biblical teaching. One way of doing this is contextualisation, in which we absorb the methods but not the content of these practices. We will have a greater impact on our community if we adopt its rituals and festivals but fill them with new meanings than if we isolate ourselves from our neighbours by refusing to share in their lives.

Customs and practices that are clearly religious must be politely avoided – for example, partaking of prasad offered by a friend or colleague who has returned from a religious pilgrimage, adorning oneself with a bindi (understood as the third eye of Shiva), participating in ancestor worship and the like. But customs and practices that are sufficiently neutral, religiously speaking, may be adapted and filled with Christian meaning. Examples would be the use of yellow flower petals in worship or of a thali necklace rather than a ring in a marriage service. In a multi-religious context, we must strive to be both authentic Christians and authentic South Asians.

Bal Krishna Sharma