An Annual Moment

I am a Roman Catholic, and just like other religious communities, we have our own religious activities. So this post is about something like that. There is a shelter-like hut near my home, where a statue of a saint is placed. Not only here, these small shrines can be found almost everywhere where a Catholic community exists.

In our village, there are many such shrines from road to road, and this one is the closest to us. It is dedicated to St. Sebastian. St. Sebastian's feast is celebrated annually in January at every church or similar places, and the Katuwapitiya Church in Negombo is also dedicated to St. Sebastian. The feast there was held yesterday, exactly on the 20th, as per tradition.

Today, the annual feast was held here, and a mass was conducted at 7 pm. The place was beautifully decorated for the occasion. No feast is complete without firecrackers, though I am not fond of the loud ones. Despite that, there were several beautiful firecrackers lit at the end of the mass.

It was a lively celebration with music, and according to the rituals, the villagers distributed milk rice and cake after the mass.

And with that, the annual feast of the little statue nearby came to an end.