Festivals in other religious communities
Muslims, Christians, Jains, and other religious communities similarly
participate in festival life across the subcontinent. Muslims, for their part,
observe at least two feast days (‘ ̄dı). One, known as ‘ ̄d al fitrı , is the feast that
ends the fasting month of Ramad.a ̄n. During Ramad.a ̄n Muslims observe
the fast (s.aum) and abstinence (imsak) from dawn to dusk each day. When
the new month begins, families gather, sometimes in larger community
settings, to celebrate in the sharing of foods that represent their cultural and
ethnic heritage.
The other feast, ‘ı ̄d al ad.h.a ̄, is the feast of sacrifice. This occurs on the tenth
day of the month of pilgrimage or h.ajj: after the event known as jamrat
(stoning of pillars) that occurs in the pilgrimage, pilgrims, and many
Muslims in solidarity with them, commemorate Ibrahim’s act of sacrificing
a ram rather than his son Ishmael. On this occasion, an unblemished sheep
or goat is sacrificed h.ala ̄l(with its face toward the Ka‘baand with the incan-
tation “in the name of Alla ̄h”). This becomes an opportunity to remember
the goodness and mercy of Alla ̄h and human dominion over animals. The
flesh of the sacrificed animal is distributed to the poor as well as to friends.
In addition, Muh.arram is observed by Shı ̄ites who mourn the assassination
of Husain, son of ‘Ali. On this occasion, in some parts of Bombay, young
men can be seen slashing themselves with knives as if to re-enact the tragedy
Muh.arram commemorates. Various other feast days will be observed,
especially by Shı ̄ites: these include the birthday of Muh.ammad and of other
saints or pı ̄rs. Some Muslims will cluster at the tombs (dargah) of such saints
and make pilgrimages to shrines deemed sacred. In many rural settings,
especially, there will be the celebration (‘urs) of a saint’s birth, in which both
Muslims and Hindus will participate. Occasionally, Hindus and Muslims will
share a common pilgrimage center inasmuch as a Muslim saint is associated
with that spot. Such is the case with Sabaramala, Kerala, where a shrine to
Vavar, said to be a Muslim “friend” of Ayyappan
̄
, is honored. In recent years,
however, militants of both camps have contested these shared spaces.
The festivals of Christians, especially of Catholics, have sometimes taken
on the accretions of the Indian landscape. The days devoted to commemo-
rating the lives of saints, for example, are often marked by the procession of
palanquins bearing the icons of the honored saints. Further, some Christian
shrines have become enormously popular for pilgrims of all communities.
This is specially so, for example, with the shrine of Lady Ve ̄l.an.kan.n.i,
the Virgin who is enshrined along the seashore of Tamil Nadu. Thousands
of pilgrims, Christian or Hindu, pour into the small pilgrimage town on
September 9 to seek healing or other favors at the shrine. For ten days
prior to the ninth, starting with a flag raising, various rituals and novenas
Religion in Contemporary India 205