Two-day Katchatheevu Church festival brings together Indo-Lanka fishermen

About 5000 Indian fishermen and pilgrims are setting sail to Katchatheevu island today to participate in the two-day St. Antony’s festivial starting today.

About 200 mechanized boats and catamarans are getting ready to ferry fishermen and pilgrims to the island. Their Sri Lankan counterparts would also arrive there.

This is following the invitation from the Jaffna Bishop Fr. Soundaranayakam and Chief Priest Father Gnanaprakasam to Ramanathapuram Priest Fr. Michael Raj for the joint celebrations of the traditional St Antony’s Church festival now that the civil war is over in the island nation.

About 5000 pilgrims and 200 boats have been registered with the Ramanathapuram collector, who held meeting Christian community leaders and discussed the rules and regulations to be followed for the peaceful pilgrimage.

In the mean time, Sri Lankan Deputy High Commission in Chennai has informed Father Michael Raj of Vercode church in Ramanathapuram that all necessary arrangements were being made to celebrate the two-day festival.

After a gap of nearly three decades, fishermen from Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka would come together at Katchatheevu, which was ceded by India to the island nation when Mrs. Indira Gandhi was Prime Minister.

After the ethnic strife broke out in 1983, the festival was not being celebrated jointly by the fishermen of the both countries. However there used to be celebrations of the church festival in the minimal form, but it ceased totally with the battle between the Sri Lankan Army and rebel LTTE at its peak for the past five years.

This revival of the festival activity in the island with the participation of mostly the fishermen of the both the nations brings in hope of normalization between them.

- Asian Tribune –