May is another month of events for us. For Chandanapallians, it is blessed to be born in May or to be home in May - because it is the month of the church perunnal/festival. A predominantly Christian village, the festival of St George is celebrated with fervor by two rival churches there - an Orthodox church and a Catholic/reetu church, which had broken away from the Orthodox church owing to differences between two indigenous priest families.
So while the Reetu church at the junction celebrates the feast on May 6.7 the Orthodox church celebrates it on 7,8 and the former manages to hoodwink newcomers to leave offerings at its altar saying it is the valiapally (Orthodox church). A beautiful big church made in stone, it recently underwent renovation to compete with the other and changed its name from St Mary's to St George like the valiapally. The sahada or saint is believed to have great powers and has reportedly visited the village on his horse. There is a kalthotti (stone well) where his horse is rumoured to have drank water! Anyway it is a point of interest near the single stone cross tower of the valiapally.
The local Hindu communities also take part actively in the church ceremonies. In fact, the rites start with a Hindu family which has to make the first rice offering in the chembu (copper vessel). The chempeduppu (carrying the chembu from the lower field area to the cross tower a km away by tipsy men shouting Oh hoi is quite a spectacle. Though I have not found it interesting, my mom has always loved to watch it. Some of the rice is then cooked and given to the beggars who line the roadsides for 2-3 km.
As a kid, I was equally scared and sympathetic to the beggars in various forms and shapes; the most grotesque looking ones got more money on the cloth spread in front even as sweat dripped down their bare torsos in the intense summer heat. That they were planted there by begging rackets or agents didnt deter us from leaving a few pennies for them.
Perunnal was when long-lost relatives made a surprise visit to our homes after visiting the church. Now since most churches celebrate the lucrative festival, we have less visitors to Chandanapally church. Perunnal was also when I waited eagerly to buy a few trinkets - "cooling" glasses, bright spiral bangles, plastic parrots and other toys. Now we only buy spicy peanuts, and candles to light at the altars of St George, a saint who is believed to cure diseases or answer any intercessionary prayer of the faithful. Even an agnostic like dad likes to humour the saint, and he would leave a penny in the offerings box at the cross tower if he really wanted something.
What I actually meant to write was not St George's day but my dad George's birthday. We have quite a few events on consecutive days - my sil's birthday, my wedding anniversary on the 10th and dad's official birthday on the 11th to be followed by my first cousin's birthday on 16th and my aunt's on 24th. The previous generation's May birthdays could be fake as they lived in times when there were no birth certificates and parents often changed birth dates to May to admit them to school in early June. So dad's actual birthday is sometime in June or July which he/his parents remember as a day in Edavapathi (our term for the southwest monsoon). V also has a May birthday and a real August birthday.
Anyway my stoic dad was happy to cut a cake for the first time, which I had ordered online. A few stuff I sent through a relative travelling home from here didnt reach him as the person botched up the delivery.
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