THE PRODIGIOUS EVENT

World Youth Day - a name that suggests something more like a rock festival; is a festival, but a spiritual one. It is an event organized by the Catholic Church for young people. Initiated in 1984 by Pope John Paul II and made official in 1986, WYD is celebrated annually every Palm Sunday (the sunday before Easter) by the bishops across the world in their dioceses (a district under the pastoral care of a bishop in the Christian Church). Pope John Paul II started this event with a view to bring youth from multiple cultures and countries together to meet Christ and learn from the bearers of Gospel. The Pope established this movement as a symbol of love of Christ for humanity. 

The various traditions of WYD include exchange of the Youth Cross (also called Pilgrim/Jubilee/WYD Cross). Since 1984, the Youth Cross has been carried from parish to parish, country to country depicting that only in the death and resurrection of Christ can we find salvation and redemption.  But the Cross does not journey solo, an Icon of Virgin Mary accompanies it as according to the Christian mythology Jesus was accompanied by his mother everywhere. Besides this, people to declare their own concept of Catholicism sing songs on Catholic themes, display flags and other national declarations. Another significant tradition comprises Pope’s public appearance and his message to the audience and to the world followed by his final Mass.

Post 2002, WYD has been held every three years in different parts of the world and the grandeur of this affair has been multiplying ever since. Faith is the absolute driving force. Despite the traffic congestion, chaos and other controversies surrounding WYD, it doesn’t fail to show the world a renewed faith and a transformed face of Jesus Christ in every young person.

The motto of the 2013 Rio WYD was “Put on Christ in your life, place your faith in Him, and you will never be disappointed.” The official hymn of WYD ‘Hope of the Dawn’ also tells everyone to “Receive His gift of faith”. All of these activities show that WYD, in all, is the ultimate celebration of fraternity and faith.

           The Glory Of  HAJJ

Hajj- the largest annual gathering of people in the world takes place from 8^th to 12^th of the last month of the Islamic calendar. It is one of the five pillars of Islam (others being Shahadah (belief or confession of faith), Salat (worship in the form of prayer), Sawm Ramadan (fasting during the month of Ramadan) and Zakat (alms or charitable giving)). Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca, the sacred city of Islam that every Muslim is expected to do once in his lifetime. 

 

                            Rituals that pilgrims perform include walking counter-clockwise seven times around the Ka’bah, the cube-shaped building which acts as the Muslim direction of prayer, run back and forth between the hills Al-Safa and Al Marwah, drink from the Zamzam Well, goes to the plains of Mount Arafat to stand in vigil, and throw stones in a ritual Stoning of the Devil. The pilgrims then shave their heads, perform a ritual of animal sacrifice, and celebrate the three-day global festival of Eid-al-Adha.

                            The mythology dates to the time of Prophet Ibrahim, around 2000BC in the Kingdom of Babylon. Ibrahim’s father was an idolater who made idols of God and Ibrahim’s mind rejected the idea of people bowing and worshiping a lifeless toy. He felt repulsion towards the idols and one day went and broke all idols of the temple. People were furious and questioned Ibrahim, to which he replied, “the biggest of the idol has done it. Ask them if they can speak." "You know well that these idols don't speak!" People said impatiently. "Then how come you worship things that can neither speak nor see, nor even fend for themselves? Have you lost your minds?" People’s mind and senses felt that Ibrahim is telling truth but their pride prevented them from succumbing to him and thus they decided to put him on fire as a punishment. Allah saved Ibrahim from the fire by only burning the chains he was tied to. People were shocked and amazed. But even after that only two people in his town believed in Ibrahim’s ideologies. Leaving his town, Ibrahim traveled to various places around the world to spread the awareness and knowledge of ONE God, Allah.

                                   Over the years, Ibrahim continued with his mission and succeeded but wished if there could be such a place where people would be in peace, and concentrate solely for the worship of Allah. His wish was answered when Allah ordered him to build the Sacred House, the Ka'bah. Both Ibrahim with his son Ismail went on building Ka'bah calling people to obey their Lord.

                             Hajj is therefore, a symbol of solidarity of all Muslims and complete submission to Allah. Today more than 3 million pilgrims arrive in Saudi Arabia to perform Hajj every year, which is a 2824% increase in the last 92 years.

         It is the immense devotion to Allah and enormous faith in his existence that drives millions of Muslims all around the world to do Hajj at least once in their lifetime, if not more.

The Majestic Mela

MAHA KUMBH- Largest Congregation on the Planet

     Mass gathering of Hindu devotees to take dip in the Sangam river (confluence of Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati rivers)

The oldest and the biggest religious congregation on the planet – The Maha Kumbh Mela takes place every 12 years in Allahabad, U.P., India on the banks of India’s most sacred rivers. Around 100 million pilgrims gather on this occasion to take dip in the Sangam- the confluence of the mystic rivers Ganga, Jamuna and Saraswati to purify them of all their sins. It is one of the most auspicious pilgrimages of Hindus. 

                               ‘Kumbh’ literally means a pitcher. According to the Hindu mythology, due to the curse of the priest Durvasa Muni, the demigods lost their strength and went to Lord Vishnu for help. Lord Vishnu on seeing their condition instructed them to churn Ksheer Sagar (ocean of milk) so as to get Amrit (nectar of immortality) but this required them to join hands with their archenemies, the demons. But anyways they came to an agreement and decided to share whatever comes out of the ocean equally between them. However, when the Kumbh containing the elixir appeared, both the parties became greedy and a started a war which went on for 12 days and 12 nights. During the war, Lord Vishnu (disguised as a beautiful woman called Mohini) flew away with the nectar spilling a few drops of it at the four places namely, Allahabad (Prayag), Haridwar (Uttarakhand), Ujjain (MP) and Nasik (Maharshtra). 

                             Thus, people bathe in Sangam during Maha Kumbh, as they believe that it washes away all the sins and frees one's soul from the cycle of rebirth and death as the soul converges with God Almighty.

                  A Kumbh depicts one of the most sacred and oldest rituals passed on from generations and performed by elite Brahmin priests, witnessed by spectators from all around the world including sadhus, sages, monks, holy-men and women of different backgrounds and cultures who rarely make public appearances but come on great occasions such as the Maha Kumbh.

              It is fascinating to see that, despite the pollution and dirt in the area and the unhygienic bathing, people from all over the globe still come and take dip in the river- that's the power of faith, when nothing else matters but the need to honor the doctrines the religion.