MYSORE - Shiva's birthday!
Tried to make contact with various churches here, but found them either closed or celebrating Harvest /New Year. Yes, I know they celebrate New Year with Christmas and with Pongal in Tamil Nadu, but they also celebrate it with Harvest, a sort of new beginning. The churches are lavishly decorated and the celebrations go on for a week. Some of the canopies hung in the roofing are a sight to behold - some church wardens must have no Health and Safety qualms! No pictures of these decorations yet, but hopefully we will be able to take some when there is no service in progress. I know we tend to have large congregations at Harvest, but some of these are truly enormous! One of the churches is a 'Wesley Cathedral', which isn't something we've come across before - a sort of Methodist- with- trimmings arrangement. I hope to get more information on patterns of ministry and projects from people at St. Barnabas, a CSI church not far from here. There is also a rather amazing RC church, St. Philomena's, which I still need to get access to. All the churches seem to have social programmes, and CSI and its lay-ministry schemes is very advanced. Lots of theories as to why such a traditional church managed to pioneer so much lay ministry - am working on it!
One of the reasons some churches were closed yesterday was that it was a kind of 'bank holiday'. It was the celebration of Shiva's birthday, and the celebrations were huge. Lots of loud music, people sitting in the street stringing flower garlands, wonderful smell of roses, jasmine and marigolds, and lots of cows with coloured fur wandering around amid the motor bikes, autos, bullock carts etc.
The Maharajah's Palace here is quite something, and at weekends is lit for an hour or so in the evenings with 100,000 bulbs. As it was Shiva's birthday it was lit for an extra time yesterday evening, so we wandered around and - oh my goodness! - it was one of the most amazing sights we've ever seen! Never seen it in one of those 'so-many things to see before you die' books, but it should be in them all. I will attach as many photos as Blogger will let me, but whatever it looks like, it was much more! It was an absolutely magic evening, walked our legs off, then staggered back to the hotel and decided it was definitely a gin fizz experience!
Been back to see the Palace in daylight, including the interior and it is really fabulous. Hard to pick out the best bits - possibly a wonderful stained-glass peacock dome (made in Glasgow!) - or the Gold Throne room, or the carvings, or the solid silver doors or...well the list is endless. We haven't been to many great tourist places here, as that wasn't the object of the exercise, but this was an unexpected and fantastic bonus. Everyone should see it!
MYSORE - Shiva's birthday!
Tried to make contact with various churches here, but found them either closed or celebrating Harvest /New Year. Yes, I know they celebrate New Year with Christmas and with Pongal in Tamil Nadu, but they also celebrate it with Harvest, a sort of new beginning. The churches are lavishly decorated and the celebrations go on for a week. Some of the canopies hung in the roofing are a sight to behold - some church wardens must have no Health and Safety qualms! No pictures of these decorations yet, but hopefully we will be able to take some when there is no service in progress. I know we tend to have large congregations at Harvest, but some of these are truly enormous! One of the churches is a 'Wesley Cathedral', which isn't something we've come across before - a sort of Methodist- with- trimmings arrangement. I hope to get more information on patterns of ministry and projects from people at St. Barnabas, a CSI church not far from here. There is also a rather amazing RC church, St. Philomena's, which I still need to get access to. All the churches seem to have social programmes, and CSI and its lay-ministry schemes is very advanced. Lots of theories as to why such a traditional church managed to pioneer so much lay ministry - am working on it!
One of the reasons some churches were closed yesterday was that it was a kind of 'bank holiday'. It was the celebration of Shiva's birthday, and the celebrations were huge. Lots of loud music, people sitting in the street stringing flower garlands, wonderful smell of roses, jasmine and marigolds, and lots of cows with coloured fur wandering around amid the motor bikes, autos, bullock carts etc.
The Maharajah's Palace here is quite something, and at weekends is lit for an hour or so in the evenings with 100,000 bulbs. As it was Shiva's birthday it was lit for an extra time yesterday evening, so we wandered around and - oh my goodness! - it was one of the most amazing sights we've ever seen! Never seen it in one of those 'so-many things to see before you die' books, but it should be in them all. I will attach as many photos as Blogger will let me, but whatever it looks like, it was much more! It was an absolutely magic evening, walked our legs off, then staggered back to the hotel and decided it was definitely a gin fizz experience!
Been back to see the Palace in daylight, including the interior and it is really fabulous. Hard to pick out the best bits - possibly a wonderful stained-glass peacock dome (made in Glasgow!) - or the Gold Throne room, or the carvings, or the solid silver doors or...well the list is endless. We haven't been to many great tourist places here, as that wasn't the object of the exercise, but this was an unexpected and fantastic bonus. Everyone should see it!