The boy was jubilant. Today is the palli peruunnal! He has to go to the church with his brother. The house was done up a few days ago with a general cleaning and white washing duly done. A huge bunch of little bananas were got and hung on the attic by father. The day before fish and chicken had come which will be delicacies on the perunnal day for all in the family and guests who may visit the little house!
Perunnal is celebrated in the church which is also done up every year before the perunnal. The boy was not much concerned about the doing up of the church. In fact, none of the poor families were much concerned about such things. The church had enough and more rich people to take care of such serious matters.
The poor were left to fend for themselves in an evolving world which was fast changing. Children were only to enjoy the celebrations, especially the cutie shops and plays and games which will come around the church at every festival. There will be a lot of shops selling eatables and fruits. The ubiquitous blue canes and oranges coupled with the arabian dates were a sure hit with children and the parents accompanying them mostly purchased them for the children. The smell of orange skin filled the air! The toy shops and goodie goodie shops were every were! The moving balloon walas were found every where! Those balloons lent colour to children's dreams. The balloon whistle was a hit with any child of the time. Without a couple of them in the hands of the children the perunnal is not a perunnal at all ! After blowing air into the balloon from the end of the hollow whistle part when the balloon is filled the filling end is simply released. The returning or escaping air will make a long 'peeaayeee' sound which was the general sound of the perunnal.
Then there is the death well, in which a motor cyclist will drive up in circles and when he increases speed will come up to the extreme upper crest of the well and challenged the spectators to ride with him! No body, of course, ever accepted his challenge as all were busy praying for the safety of the rider only and wanted him to end his ordeal which he showed as if it is child's play! Once he decreased speed and slowly settled down at the bottom of the well with a girl who seemed to be very beautiful with her red red coloured lips and all, all above watching them heaved a sigh of relief. No body every complained about the money they paid for the ticket, but murmured among themselves " why these poor things have to do all this" People could never understand why someone had to take such risks to thrill and please others ..!
Then there was the important item of going and paying obeisance at the 'punnialan's' presence and pray to him. Here the punnialan was an angel. Arch angel, St. Raphael from the book of Tobit. The boy believed the stories and had great belief in the deity. He prayed to the deity daily and the deity always granted his wishes! One of his wish and prayer was to have some little prizes to be purchased at the perunnal. The money for the same was hard to come by. He prayed for the same fervently to the Angel and set out with his brother to the church.
Near the church lived his uncle. Every perunnal it was custom to visit the uncle at his house cum urvedic medical shop and the boys repeated it this time too.The boy prayed to the angel that the uncle should be there when they visited. If the uncle is not there going there was not much of a point as auntie will be serving them special recepies and tea, that is all. But not like that with uncle. And this time when they reached the uncle was at his shop ready for church and smiling at them!
The boys felt happy and elated. He said to the boys : "Going to perunnal? Good, go and have the special recepies from auntie and before you proceed come here and tell me, don't you have to put offering at the church?" The boys said in union "Yes" and the uncle pulled open his table drawer and took two 'tow ana' coins and gave one each to the two boys who were overjoyed and elated! They their found it difficult to gulp down the recipies kept before them before them by their auntie as they were anxious to run to the church.
The church was agog and loud with the band group blowing all their equipments and drumming in different tunes as the main mass was over and the whole area was filled with people from all places. The boys after enjoying the band for a little while proceeded out to spend their two anas to good purpose and enjoyment among the little shops and goodie goodie shops..!
They did not understand the importance of putting an offering at that point of time but fully understood the need of the two anas for buying their little toys and other little amusements!
The festival is organized every October and people of far and near took turns to come and pay obeisance to the Angel who is believed to give them their wishes ! The festival went on for two days people thronging the place day and night and all the sale and shows went about continuously for forty eight hours on the days of twenty third and twenty fourth of the month and then continued with a lesser vigour after that till the 'ettamidom' which is the eighth day after the festival proper when a small scale programme is held for those who have missed the main festival days!
Perunnal is celebrated in the church which is also done up every year before the perunnal. The boy was not much concerned about the doing up of the church. In fact, none of the poor families were much concerned about such things. The church had enough and more rich people to take care of such serious matters.
The poor were left to fend for themselves in an evolving world which was fast changing. Children were only to enjoy the celebrations, especially the cutie shops and plays and games which will come around the church at every festival. There will be a lot of shops selling eatables and fruits. The ubiquitous blue canes and oranges coupled with the arabian dates were a sure hit with children and the parents accompanying them mostly purchased them for the children. The smell of orange skin filled the air! The toy shops and goodie goodie shops were every were! The moving balloon walas were found every where! Those balloons lent colour to children's dreams. The balloon whistle was a hit with any child of the time. Without a couple of them in the hands of the children the perunnal is not a perunnal at all ! After blowing air into the balloon from the end of the hollow whistle part when the balloon is filled the filling end is simply released. The returning or escaping air will make a long 'peeaayeee' sound which was the general sound of the perunnal.
Then there is the death well, in which a motor cyclist will drive up in circles and when he increases speed will come up to the extreme upper crest of the well and challenged the spectators to ride with him! No body, of course, ever accepted his challenge as all were busy praying for the safety of the rider only and wanted him to end his ordeal which he showed as if it is child's play! Once he decreased speed and slowly settled down at the bottom of the well with a girl who seemed to be very beautiful with her red red coloured lips and all, all above watching them heaved a sigh of relief. No body every complained about the money they paid for the ticket, but murmured among themselves " why these poor things have to do all this" People could never understand why someone had to take such risks to thrill and please others ..!
Then there was the important item of going and paying obeisance at the 'punnialan's' presence and pray to him. Here the punnialan was an angel. Arch angel, St. Raphael from the book of Tobit. The boy believed the stories and had great belief in the deity. He prayed to the deity daily and the deity always granted his wishes! One of his wish and prayer was to have some little prizes to be purchased at the perunnal. The money for the same was hard to come by. He prayed for the same fervently to the Angel and set out with his brother to the church.
Near the church lived his uncle. Every perunnal it was custom to visit the uncle at his house cum urvedic medical shop and the boys repeated it this time too.The boy prayed to the angel that the uncle should be there when they visited. If the uncle is not there going there was not much of a point as auntie will be serving them special recepies and tea, that is all. But not like that with uncle. And this time when they reached the uncle was at his shop ready for church and smiling at them!
The boys felt happy and elated. He said to the boys : "Going to perunnal? Good, go and have the special recepies from auntie and before you proceed come here and tell me, don't you have to put offering at the church?" The boys said in union "Yes" and the uncle pulled open his table drawer and took two 'tow ana' coins and gave one each to the two boys who were overjoyed and elated! They their found it difficult to gulp down the recipies kept before them before them by their auntie as they were anxious to run to the church.
The church was agog and loud with the band group blowing all their equipments and drumming in different tunes as the main mass was over and the whole area was filled with people from all places. The boys after enjoying the band for a little while proceeded out to spend their two anas to good purpose and enjoyment among the little shops and goodie goodie shops..!
They did not understand the importance of putting an offering at that point of time but fully understood the need of the two anas for buying their little toys and other little amusements!
The festival is organized every October and people of far and near took turns to come and pay obeisance to the Angel who is believed to give them their wishes ! The festival went on for two days people thronging the place day and night and all the sale and shows went about continuously for forty eight hours on the days of twenty third and twenty fourth of the month and then continued with a lesser vigour after that till the 'ettamidom' which is the eighth day after the festival proper when a small scale programme is held for those who have missed the main festival days!
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