LENT, HOLY WEEK AND EASTER

Traditionally Lent is a time for fasting, and in the Diocese of Vellore most Christians will fast for the 40 days of Lent, this could mean:

• eating only vegetarian food or
• not having breakfast or
• on Fridays, eating only supper or
• just having water and no food for 40 days(eating on Sundays only).

Ladies will also not wear flowers in their hair during Lent (many Indian ladies like to wear fresh flowers every day in their hair).  There are no decorations in the churches over Lent.

At a service on Ash Wednesday every family is given a round offering box or charity box made of clay and called an undi.  As the family fasts and misses meals, they put the money they have saved by not buying food into this box.  On Good Friday these boxes are brought to church and placed on the altar.  The money saved goes to support diocesan projects such as medical clinics, prison visiting, bicycles for Bible women, hostels for orphans.

Every Friday of Lent there is a special service.  Women will often fast on this day and come to church wearing a white sari.  Sometimes the town churches will have a revival meeting during Lent for three to five days.  This includes singing and telling the story of Holy Week and Easter as a musical production.

Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday and on this day the children of the congregation will process round the church three times carrying palm branches and flowers.  They take the palms home and put them up as decorations in the house.

On Maundy Thursday there will be a Holy Communion service.

On Good Friday every Christian family in a village brings a handful of rice to church for the service.  This is all cooked up together, and everyone will eat a handful of rice.  Hindu villagers often like to come and collect a handful of the special blessed rice too.   The churches are packed on Good Friday, often people end up sitting outside the church and listening through the open windows to the service.

In the town churches on Good Friday there will be a four hour service with several different preachers from 11.00 a.m. to 3.00 p.m. This is followed by all sharing a drink of buttermilk.  Every Christian household serves poor quality food on this day because the family think of themselves as in mourning.   In towns like Chittoor the churches stage a crucifixion procession.  They borrow a lorry which is covered in coloured lights and tour the town for three hours.  On the back of the lorry they present a tableau of  Jesus carrying his cross and being whipped.

On Holy Saturday few churches have services – it is a day of quiet.  In the evening the town churches are decorated with beautiful sweet smelling white jasmine flowers ready for Easter Day.  White is the colour of Easter.

Easter Sunday begins with an early service of Holy Communion at 4.00 or 5.00 a.m. (dawn will be at about 6.00 a.m.).  This is followed by a 9.00 a.m. worship service which Hindus also attend.   The ladies of the church will have been very busy boiling eggs in red dye (sometimes green dye) which are distributed to everybody present after the service – this means that every church has to prepare thousands of eggs!  The yolk of the egg is seen as a symbol of purity and goodness – often Indian parents feed their children the yolks of eggs and just eat the whites themselves!

In Vellore on the evening of Easter Day there is an ecumenical celebration of the resurrection in the large compound in front of Central Church, when Pentecostals, Roman Catholics and other Christians will join the Church of South India celebrations.  Every church in Vellore and the surrounding area sends representatives to this service and the worship is led by the Bishop.  This is the only ecumenical service which is held in the year.

The resurrection of Jesus shown in the Indian style