UAE: Unity Kannada Church Celebrates Harvest Festival
Report by: Shodhan Prasad - Dubai 1st October, 2008
Pics Sujay Bendore
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Dubai, Oct 2: Unity Kannada Church (UKC) Dubai/Sharjah celebrated Harvest Festival on 1st Oct. 2008 at Holy Trinity Church Dubai (UAE) with grace and spirit which was a day long event filled with fun, games, music and spiritual entertainment.
Harvest Festival is being celebrated all over India irrespective of caste, creed or religion. It is the time when new crop either paddy or wheat is ready for harvest. In Northern India people harvest their wheat in spring, which is either in late February or early March. Though this festival is celebrated all over India on the same day, it has different names in each region. However, being a harvest festival, bonfires and feasts are the main thing common to all the celebrations of this festival.
At festival time everyone dresses up, or buys new clothes. People join in the fun of the festival by wearing old clothes as part of the celebration they throw colored water and red powder at each other. Everyone whether they are family, friends or strangers get the same treatment.
In Northern India, the festival is known as Lohri while in Assam it is called Bhogali Bihu, in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar it is known as Sankranti, and in Andhra Pradesh it is celebrated as Bhogi, when each household puts on display its collection of dolls. In Eastern India the primary crop harvested is rice.
In Southern India they have a festival called Onam. For this festival they clean their homes and the children go out to pick flowers and in return are bought new clothes. People go to the temple and give thanks for the harvest. Also in Southern India Pongal is a four-day harvest festival and one of the most joyful events. In Tamil Nadu, newly harvested rice is ceremonially cooked. In Karnataka, the festival is called 'Sankranti', and cows and bullocks are gaily decorated and fed on Pongal, which is a sweet preparation of rice. In the evening, the cattle are led out in procession to the beat of drums and music.
For the People of Coorg in the town of Karnataka in the South of India Puthari or Huthari is the traditional harvest festival known for a variety of folk songs and dances being displayed.
It is observed in November/December. Each village presents its own set of discipline and dances during the annual fairs at its temple, which is the main centre of cultural activities. When the Paddy Crop is ready for the harvest, a little crop is cut, bound in small bunches and handed out to all those present to be taken home and preserved as a sign of prosperity.
With the same spirit, Unity Kannada Church one of the very much disciplined Church in the Gulf which recently completed and had their 10th year anniversary celebration, started with thanks giving service at Holy Trinity Church premises at 8:30 a.m. It was nice to see children of Unity Kannada Church entering the church with fruits / vegetable baskets. The venue was decorated with fresh cut paddy bunches and sugar cane which was later distributed. The service was conducted by Rev. William B. Kunder the appointed Rev. of this Church. Tulu and English choir were very well presented by the choir group and the Friday school children. The service was attended by more than 400 guests including groups from Abu Dhabi Fellowship all of them simply enjoying the activities of the Harvest function.
The Committee arranged breakfast soon after the service and the entire crowd moved to an adjacent hall for this later continued their activities with auction of fruits, vegetable, gift items, eatables etc.
Variety games commenced at around 12:15 p.m. which was very well organized by the famous Vinod Bangera in a professional way. He made all age groups to participate in various games activities in the main hall. The games included lucky games for infants and children of age group 4 -7 years, Hopping race, Surprise games, Picking chocolates for children of age group 8 – 12 years, Peeling banana and Hopping race for boys of age group 13 -16 years. Bursting the baloon and match stick tower for girls of age group 13 – 16 years was really enjoyed by the crowd. Frog race, Polo searching, Ping Pong for spinsters and cock fight for bachelors of age group 17 years + was really tough and applauded by the crowd.
Special games like Breaking the pot for married men, Harvesting for married women, Lemon and spoon with a twist for couples, Guessing the weight of watermelon and guessing the number of almonds in a jar for all age group were enjoyable and well participated. Other than the above there were a number of spot games and registration raffle as well as Fancy dress competition. Paintings and drawings by Friday school children were also exhibited at the venue.
Winners of all the games were given Prizes immediately at the end of each and every game.
Sumptuous vegetarian lunch with a variety of dishes was served in a truly traditional way on banana leaves and was very well arranged by the committed volunteers of UKC
It was the group of talented musicians who performed and kept the crowd cheering all through the day and kept the programme and the crowd live and encouraging with various beautiful numbers including spiritual songs.
Above all it was the one and only Harold Kallen’s wonderful job as master of ceremony which kept the programme live and the people on their toes tireless through out the day. The crowd wanted more but the time was indeed less.
The programme was very well supported by all the youngsters of UKC that made the chairman Don Liddle to produce the entire programme in a systematic and truly traditional way.
The function was attended by Sujay Bendore of Daijiworld along with Shodhan Prasad and also. Ganesh Rai of Sharjah Kannada Sangha.
The programme was concluded with vote of thanks by Bhaskar Kotian (Secretary) and prayer by Rev. William B. Kunder.