Easter

Usually comes in mid march to April and it coincides with our summer holidays. After 10 to 15 days of exams the summer holidays are a welcome break. I head to my usual destination a small village in the outskirts Kottayam known as 'TEEKOY', it in a way translates to 'fire hen'. Guess whoever named the place knew the eating habits of the people there. This is the place were I was born, and also the place were I spent half of my holidays. For Easter usually the family get together in my mother's ancestral house which is situated in Teekoy. The celebration starts with a 50 day Lent where we avoid taking any meat or fish dishes. Special mass is offered on palm Sunday, and mass is compulsory on all days of the Holy Week, until Monty Thursday when the celebration begins.

We commemorate the breaking of the bread, by breaking nice hot crossed buns. It is served along with a type of milk, made from coconut milk and jaggery, Man...that's delicious ! The eldest male in the family, breaks the bread and distributes the bread after a small prayer. This usually takes place before supper. On good Friday, well we fast. There is no mass for the day but we go to church to listen to the reading from the gospel and to participate in certain rituals. Every body who comes to the church is given the sour vinegar, made from a special plant, similar to the one given to Jesus on the cross. Man...that's bitter. We aren't allowed to play or watch TV, and no food till three in the afternoon. Man...time sure moves slow on that day. At three we have a small prayer and then we raid the refrigerators. Man...the cold food sure taste good. Saturday is a quiet day. There's no mass on Saturdays as well. But it's a busy day for the ladies as they have to do the preparation for the next day.

Easter starts early, when most of us children get up at 5.00 to see the butcher slaughter the goat. We slaughter a whole goat as we are a huge family. The skin, the tongue, the head, the hoofs, the liver and rest of the spare parts go to the butcher. Some are distributed to the neighbors and servants and rest is for break fast. We go for mass in the morning and after the mass we have a huge breakfast, consisting mainly of nice appams, puttu, mutton stew and some nice beef olathiyathu (a dry beef preparation). There is a huge celebration in the kitchen as all the ladies gather in the kitchen to do their bit for the afternoon supervised by my grandmother and great grandmother. The men in the family enjoy their drink and we hit the river close by. By around 1.00 all the swimming and the sun makes us really hungry, and we gather back in the house for a huge feast, consisting of duck, pork, chicken and beef preparation served with rice and bread, followed by dessert. Its quite difficult to do anything with a full stomach as a result we take it easy in the afternoon. The night is usually quiet with the afternoon's leftovers for dinner, and early to bed.