Christianising a Hindu goddess
p. 21 · Read in the full issue
Hindu goddess
Lights flickered in small earthen vare dishes all over Fiji on Sunday, November 5 to celebrate the Hindu estival of Diwali, or Deepawali— here are several ways of spelling it— /hich is akin, in some respects to he Christian Christmas, with feast ng, the giving of presents and rayers.
The same lights flickered on the teps of the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Suva and on the high Itar itself. It was the Roman 'atholic Church adjusting itself to le customs of a section of its con regation. But, unlike the Hindus, .rchbishop George Pearce and his angregation at the Missa Punja ere not worshipping Laxmi, the addess of wealth, but Christ, the ight of the World.
The mass, in Hindustani, was said Y Archbishop Pearce whose pro anciation of the language was said Y some Indian members of the con ■egation to be “very good”.
The archbishop has been studying industani for about a year and has lid mass in the language several mes but never, until now, in public.
Some of the Hindu ritual was troduced including the offering of Dwers and the burning of incense id camphor.