We are in the midst of a festive season. Every festival is a time of celebration and joy in keeping with the spirit of brotherhood, irrespective of caste or creed. Christmas has long been associated with feasting and merriment, in which celebrants decorate their homes with a Christmas tree, a crib and sing Christmas carols. We have grown up buying new clothes and shoes for local feasts and festivals. If shoes were purchased for the local feast of the patron of the village Church or the Goddess of the local temple, then clothes would be the choice at Christmas, Idd or Diwali. Meats could be afforded only on these days. Festivals then were not commercialised but boosted trade and drove commerce.
The neighbours food is always more tastier especially since it is sent with lots of affection. Christmas season becomes incomplete if Hindus and Muslims don’t receive sweets from their Christian friends and neighbours. Likewise for the Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations families come back to their homes in the villages, meet their neighbours irrespective of religion and revive childhood memories, munching modaks, nevroes and other delicacies. Even diabetics cannot resist the Muslim kheer. All festivals are space of fun, inclusivity and the ‘joy of giving’.
This year it was disturbing to learn that our Goan festivals are getting the communal bug. The final outcome of the Shanta Durga Fatarpekarin Temple Committee’s decision not to put restrictions on stalls belonging to Muslim community, is welcome. The earlier decision to keep out that community must have been a part of the narrative that has sunk into our society. The temple trust now deserves an acquittal for standing against the tide.
The committee members clarified that the earlier news reports were based on an individual’s statement and did not reflect the official stance of the temple committee. They also reaffirmed that “the annual zatrosav has been celebrated for many decades as a symbol of communal harmony where people from different castes, faiths and religions come together to seek the blessings of the Goddess and emphasized that no community had been excluded from participation”.
A similar request was brought before the Shantadurga Kunkolekarin temple committee also at Fatorpa but was not entertained by the enlightened members who could foresee the dangerous consequences of such a decision not only in dividing communities but endangering the livelihood of families. Our Konkani language has an age old adage respected by all, Potar pai divu naka.
The Shree Devi Sateri Devasthan Committee at Hosapur-Pernem however decided not to allow Muslim vendors during their annual zatra (temple fair) and what is more shocking is the extension of this ban on any other Hindu festival in the Hasapur-Chandel panchayat jurisdiction. The zatra was held on 22 December 2024. The locals even put up awareness boards to inform the public about the decision of the temple committee. Can such Panchayats be permitted to avail of government funds? Can a majoritarian government stamp on the right of livelihood of the minorities in Goa? The administration needs to bring the concerned stakeholders together like in Quepem and then decide in keeping with the tenets of our great constitution.
Goa celebrates Church feasts of their respective patron saint fixed on almost every day of the calendar. All the people of St. Estevan island have just celebrated their annual feast of the patron of their Church St. Stephen on 26 December. A day when all the non-residents of the island return back home, even married daughters come with their families to relive in the land of their childhood, eat the kadio and bodio made and sold by Hindus, buy glass bangles, toys and eat chone (roasted grams) and bikna (roasted peanuts). It never matters if the seller is a Hindu, Christian or Muslim. Hindus practising traditional occupations like the Revdikars, Khajikars, Pidukars and Kakonkars lived and flowered by selling their wares in Church compounds. Catholic feasts would be incomplete without their kadio, bodio and chone. The Shree Devi Sateri Devasthan Committee at Hosapur-Pernem needs to rethink their decision as it disturbs the very fabric of what remains of our Goan heritage and inclusive culture. Can or will the Churches and Mosques pass resolutions
to prohibit Hindus from
selling their wares for feasts and celebrations?
Recently this month in Indore, when the Zomato delivery riders wore the Santa Clause costume they were forced to remove their costume and questioned why during Diwali they do not wear the costume of Lord Ram. In Lucknow, a big crowd of people sang loud bhajans outside a Cathedral. In Kerala, young students of the Government UP School, Nellipily were stopped from celebrating the traditional Christmas tree party with the Christmas father as they were singing Christmas carols by the Sangh Parivar. We live in very difficult times where majoritarian bulling is the new order of the day.
The Bajrang Dal and the cow vigilante activists were stopping the beef laden trucks at the borders and harassing the transporters and the meat traders demanding their licenses. This work can be done only by the administration or the Animal Husbandry Department and cannot be outsourced to these right fringed pressure groups. The Qureshi Meat Traders Association of Goa went on a strike a few days before Christmas as the beef traders were attacked in Margao. This year many Christians had to celebrate Christmas without their traditional beef dishes. Politics of hatred should not be permitted access into people’s kitchen. The Bepari meat traders were most affected from their source of livelihood.
Christmas is not only the most important day on the Christian calendar, but it has also become the most important day on the financial calendar. According to Forbes, retailers in America can expect to make $1trillion from Christmas sales, accounting for one quarter of their yearly profits. It is the time of the year when businesses tend to see a massive upswing in their profits, as people rush out to buy decorations, food, and gifts. The commercialisation of Christmas shows little signs of diminishing.
Christmas stimulates the economy from all facets. The supply and demand of both goods and services increase around Christmas. This is due to the over consumption and commercialization of Christmas, often causing demand to exceed supply. In the US, the "Christmas shopping season" starts as early as October. In Canada, merchants begin advertising campaigns just before Halloween (31 October), and step up their marketing following Remembrance Day on 11 November. In the UK and Ireland, the Christmas shopping season starts from mid-November, around the time when high street Christmas lights are turned on. In the United States, it has been calculated that about one fifth of retail sales to one quarter of all personal spending takes place during the Christmas/holiday shopping season.
If the economy suffers, the people, state and country suffers. Religious bigotry has already divided people and nations. Christmas and other festivals remind us of the need to be better human beings at the same time with the onset of commercialisation they have been converted to the hen that lays the golden eggs. This thought should be protected and savoured by the next generation. This protection will preserve and strengthen our economy and in turn protect us.
(The writer is a Professor in History, Author&
Independent Researcher)