Logo

Logo

Yesteryear Eastertides

Eastertide in Delhi was the last community celebration by the resident British before most of them went home to Old…

Yesteryear Eastertides

Representational image (Photo: Getty Images)

Eastertide in Delhi was the last community celebration by the resident British before most of them went home to Old Blighty or to the hills, with Simla being the favoured destination.

The Kashmere Gate area was the centre of activities, with St James' Church drawing a large congregation since the Cathedral Church of the Redemption had not come up in New Delhi then and the Viceroy and his aides were among those who attended the Easter Week services there on the four main days, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday, when the big party was held on the lawn.

Bishop Thomas Valpy French of Lahore, once on a visit during transit to his diocese, remarked that it reminded him of a typical English country church gathering. Bishop French died at the Cape of Good Hope while returning to England and was probably buried at sea but is still remembered as a pioneer of the Church Missionary Society.

Advertisement

One of his children was born in the Agra Fort during the Uprising of 1857. That was after Easter, a particularly painful one for the pregnant Mrs French. At the Catholic church of St Mary's, Easter celebrations had an Italian flavour.

The church had been rebuilt, after its demolition in 1857, by Father Keegan with substantial help from the Dominga family, who owned a lot of property in parts of Delhi and at their matriarch's Mughalbestowed estate near Okhla, where later Masigarh came up and Christians uprooted from Raisina during the building of new Delhi were resettled.

The Italian influence on Easter festivities continued up to 1935, when the newly-built Sacred Heart Cathedral came to be headed by Irish Archbishop Mulligan. Talking about those times, Georgie's father, the old sacristan, used to recall the bringing of Holy Oils from the Agra Cathedral, made on Maundy Thursday, for use in ceremonies throughout the year. Along with them, plain Zaitoon-ka-tail, or olive oil, was also brought.

It was not extracted from the olive trees near Akbar's Chruch but imported from Italy. Once the vessel containing some Holy Oil got spilt and the sacristan had to be sent back to bring some more by the parish priest, Fr Luke.

The tableau of the Garden of Gethsemane (where Christ was arrested) set up in the church, however, smelt more of Italy than of Jerusalem, said one parishioner in 1958. If memory serves right, his name was Augustine and he used to live in Mor Sarai, after which St Mary's was also known as Mor Sarai-ka-Girja.

Advertisement