Mangaluru : The Christian community in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Kasargod districts celebrated the birthday of Mary, mother of Jesus Christ, with religious fervour on Friday.

For the Konkani-speaking Catholic community living in the coastal districts, September 8 has a special significance as the day is also celebrated as the day of the ‘New Corn or Harvest’. The occasion is also marked by a thanksgiving mass for the blessing of a good harvest.

As a preparation to the feast, children bring flowers arranged in trays and baskets to their churches and offer them to Mother Mary on the nine days preceding the feast. Hundreds of children had brought flowers from far off places to their respective churches in the coastal districts on Friday morning.

Though it was drizzling on Thursday, the weather was pleasant on Friday. Most of the parishes had arranged for distribution of sugarcane to children who had brought flowers to offer to Mary while a few distributed sweets. A few parishes distributed blessed Payasam in which the dehusked corns were powdered and mixed.

As part of the celebrations, parishioners donated rice, vegetables and coconuts and they were distributed to the poor, old age homes and orphanages. As a tradition, the first corn from the field was brought to the altar in a procession and is blessed by the priest. The offertory procession included the statue of Mother Mary, sugarcane, vegetables, flowers, fruits and bread. The blessed ears of paddy corn and sugarcane are then taken home by the people.

Traditionally, the feast is celebrated as a family feast with a ceremonial lunch in which only vegetarian food is served.

In the past, up to 13 varieties of vegetarian dishes (usually only odd numbers) were prepared. However, now majority of the families limit it to five to seven. As an unwritten rule, Catholics also avoid meat and alcohol on the day.

The day is also an occasion for all the family members to unite. It is a practice that if any member of the family cannot attend the celebrations, then the ear of paddy corn will be sent to them by post to far away places like West Asian countries, US and Europe. As per the tradition, after dehusking the corn blessed in the church, it is powdered and mixed with a dish made out of coconut milk and rice batter and is partaken along with the lunch.