Monday, May 21, 2007

Hag Hamatzot

'Hag Hamatzot' i.e. the festival of unleavened bread. It is a 7 day festival God told to observe strictly. Leaven is similar to yeast but definitely not yeast. In marathi the word used for leaven is "khameer". Definitely for marathi christian people the concept "khameer" is completely alien. 'Bread' has never been a part of our living. The word "bhakri" for bread is a good effort but lead to more complications. 'bhakri' can not be unleavened.
Besides "bhakri", "bread" and "leaven" are not just eatable things but they are the cultural products with some values attached to it. The process of unleavening has significance because leaven is considered as an element encouraging sin. Like many other rules of cleanliness of Leviticus the process of unleavening has importance.
The point is if leaven is not a part of living of this land how exactly the religion 'christianity' is interpreted in this land. Definitely the people here are missing the nuances. Or in other words it can be said that the community is understanding only the universally appealing characteristics of the religion like "love", "forgivence" etc.
I mean to use the "Mendhpaal" for "Shepherd" in "God is my Shepherd" is an intelligent choice definitely because if the word "Dhangar" is used, God himself gets framed in another caste in Indian context.
In this context only the christianity still remains much more 'foreign' to the people here.