The Gazetteers Department

CHRISTIANS are returned, according to 1951-census as numbering 14,637 (m. 6,544; f. 8,093) and they form 0.85 per cent, of the district population. According to the censuses for the years 1911, 1921 and 1931, they numbered 11,529 (m. 5,542; f.5,987, 11,904 (m. 5,678; f. 6,226) and 13,189 (m. 6,188; f. 7,001) or 0.81, 0.87 and 0.86 per cent, respectively. Their tractwise distribution over the district in 1951 is as follows:

Rural Tracts: 8,857 (m. 3,829; f. 5,028)—Sawantwadi and Vengurla, 4,435 (m. 1,982; f. 2,483); Kankavli and Kudal, 2,953 (m. 1,270; f. 1,683); Deogad and Malvan, 1,141 (m. 447; f. 694); Rajapur and Lanje, 47 (m. 18; f. 29); Ratnagiri and Sangameshwar, 16 (m. 6; f. 10); Khed and Chiplun, 19 (m. 17; f. 2); Dapoli, Mandangad and Guhagar, 216 (m. 89; f. 127).

Urban Tracts: 5,780 (m. 2,715; f. 3,065)-Rajapur, Ratnagiri and Sangameshwar, 200 (m. 127; f. 73); Chiplun and Khed, 11 (m. 6; f. 5); Savantwadi, Vengurla and Malvan, 5,569 (m. 2,582; f. 2,987).

Calling themselves Christis and known by the people of the district as Firingis or Portuguese or more popularly as Kiristanvs, some of them may have a strain of Portuguese blood but the bulk are local people converted in mass to Christianity during the time of Portuguese rule. Except for a few Deccani Christians stationed at Vengurla in association with the American Mission activities there, the rest are Konkani Roman Catholics. These, though they have Christian names and surnames still keep to the old distinction of caste, calling themselves Christian Kunbis, Bhandaris or Kolis, and marrying only among members of their own caste. The names in common use among men, are Andru, Anton, Babal, Babu, Damnik, David, Enas, Forsu, Francis, Ghabru, Kaitan, Kistu, Luis, Montio, Nikol, Norbet, Pawlu, Pedru, Roki, Rumas, Siman, Victor, and Zilu; and among women, Anamaria, Anjelia, Arkan, Enasin, Esabel, Fatima, Filomen, Konsu, Kristalin, Lushi, Mariyan, Mary, Natalin, Rita, Romana and Rosin. They have European surnames such as Gomes, D'sa, D'souza, Fernandez, Rodrigues and Saldhana which their ancestors are said to have received from those who stood sponsors to them at the time of baptism. Some of them bear local surnames such as Adelkar, Ajagaonkar, Dabholkar, Daboskar, Madkar, Manjarekar, Malvankar, Nandoskar, Phanasekar and Redkar.

Language.

In the southern part of the district the home tongue of the community is Konkani a dialect of Marathi which leans more on the side of Malvani than that used in Goa. Their literates are well conversant with Marathi which has now become the home tongue of those residing in the northern part.

House.

The well-to-do live in substantial one-storied houses. The walls are either of mud or of laterite, plastered both outside and inside. The floor is cowdunged and polished by rubbing with stones. The roofs are tiled either with country or Mangalore tiles and as a rule the ceilings are of wood. The houses are divided into a veranda, a hall, one or more bed-rooms, a dining room, and a cook-room. In some houses the cook-room is a separate building, near which stands the bath-room and the cow-shed. The better class families generally have tables, chairs, couches, bedsteads, chests of drawers, and stools, brass lamps, cups, saucers, plates, glassware and cutlery, boxes and trunks and some pictures of the Virgin and Child and of Popes. A middle class family has generally one or two benches, one or two stools, with perhaps a single chair, cots, cups and saucers and a few metal and earthen vessels. A poor family has perhaps a small wooden stool, some mats, and some earthen and metal vessels.

Dress.

Among the well-to-do the men dress in European fashion, and the poor generally in a jacket and short trousers of coloured cotton. Like the local Hindus they may wear a head scarf, a shoulder cloth thrown loosely over the body and a waist-cloth girt round the loins.

Almost all the women dress in local Hindu fashion, except that they wear a peculiar neck amulet of red stone beads strung together and joined in front by a green coloured stone edged with gold, called fora. They are fond of the red and blue checked Belgaum cloth. Among the poorer classes the robe (sari) is worn tight and does not fall below the knee; the upper classes wear it full falling close to the ankle, some wearing European petticoats and jackets. Unmarried girls do not draw one end of the robe over the upper part of the body, and married women wear the upper end over the right shoulder like most Hindus, and is either held in the right hand or tucked into the waistband on the left side. When they go to the church women cover themselves with a white sheet-like cotton robe that hangs from the head to the ankle, and is worn with considerable grace falling from the head in free outward curves, showing the face and rich necklace, and caught with the hand at the waist, and from there falling straight to the feet. The bodice is loose, full-backed and long-sleeved, and is tied in front under the bosom. For ordinary wear it is of cotton and for special occasions of silk or brocade. Women generally wear gold ear-rings shaped like cockle shells, silver necklaces in double loops, and some glass bangles round each wrist. On high days they wear gold-headed hair pins, looped gold necklaces, earrings, bracelets, bangles and finger rings.

Though there are few rich families a considerable number are well-to-do. They are a quiet-orderly class, hard-working, and, except for their fondness for drink, frugal. The upper classes who are educated are employed in Bombay as clerks and shopmen and some are Government servants. Most of the poorer classes are husbandmen showing great skill in growing vegetables and breeding pigs, ducks, turkeys and hens. Unlike the Goanese Christians, they pride themselves on never taking household service with Europeans. Most are illiterate, on par with the Hindus who follow the same callings. Besides their hereditary calling [The old caste distinctions still persist to some extent among the Ratnagiri Christians. The Bamans who are mostly fair and of the middle height with well-cut features are mostly landlords (Bhatkars) and well-paid Government servants. Some enter the church. The Renars (Bhandaris) comprising most of the Christian population were once palm-juice drawers. They are also carpenters, tailors, masons, fitters, mechanics, drivers, husbandmen, and labourers. The Gavades (Marathas) who are a well-built and sturdy class love more to take to independent professions than to service. The Carades who are found in small number in Savantwadi, have most of the males serving in towns. The Dentalis and the Khapris (Siddis) are backward and illiterate classes, found in small numbers and mainly living as labourers.], Christians freely follow any profession except tanning and shoemaking, washing, and pot-making.

Religious Organisation.

The Konkani Christians have their religious rites and ceremonies regulated by the canon and liturgical laws of Roman Catholics the world over. But for actual government and ministration, the Roman Catholics in the district are under the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Goa who has under him Vicars general and under a Vicar general are priests in charge of parish churches, smaller churches attached to parish churches, and chapels [Churches are situated at Sawantwadi, Vengurla, Malvan, Ajgaon, Masure Chinder, and smaller churches and chapels at Shiroda, Bhiravne, Redi, Man-gaon, Devabag, Aronda, Amboli, Bhedashi, Satarda, Kasal, Salgaon, Dandoli Ratnagiri, Dapoli and Harnai.]. Parish priests are chosen from all classes except the very low such as Mahars, converts, and illegitimate children. Some of them are the sons of Baman (Christian), landholders, sufficiently well-to-do to give their children a good education. Others come from Goa or from Bombay. All know Marathi (Konkani) and Latin, and all have some knowledge of Portuguese and a few of English. They are educated at Goa and ordained at the age of twenty-four by the Archbishop of Goa or his delegate, and they remain celebate for their life. They almost always live in houses adjoining or attached to their churches, and where the villages are small one priest often serves two or three churches. They dress in long black cassock or cassock-like coat, and some of them wear the biretta or four-cornered cap. Besides the monthly salaries they receive from the Goa Government, and the offertories they collect at prayer meetings, they get from the parishioners, christening wedding and burial fees.

The objects of particular devotion of Konkani Roman Catholics are the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Anne, St. Francis Xavier, St. Antonio, St. Sebastian, and St. Joseph, whose image, with the image of Christ they keep in their houses and pray to. Each family has one of these saints as a patron. A small figure of the crucified Christ and of the patron saint are reverentially placed either on an altar or in a niche in the wall of the house. The more religious among them pray five times a day, on rising, at midday, at sunset, shortly after sunset, and on retiring to rest.

Every large settlement has a church and small settlements have chapels which are visited by a priest during November and December and April and May. During his visit the priest celebrates the feast of the patron saint which lasts for nine days and is followed by vespers on the tenth. All the leading churches have brotherhoods both of men and women who wear a special cloak and tippet. Each member pays a yearly subscription which gets credited to form a church fund managed by the members. All members abstain from flesh on all Fridays and Saturdays in Lent; they confess their sins in the ear of the priest and receive the communion at least once a year, and are bound to attend church every Sunday and close holiday.

Many of the lower orders of Christians share the local beliefs in omens, lucky days, and magic, and may worship Hindu gods and Musalman saints. But because of the strong disapproval shown by the priest of such practices they have now grown much less usual or at least much more carefully concealed.

Customs.

As the Konkani Christians of Ratnagiri district include many classes it is difficult to give an account of their customs which applies to all. The following details are believed to represent correctly the social and religious observances at present in use among the bulk of Ratnagiri Christians on occasion of births, marriages and deaths.

Birth.

Young wives go for the first confinement to their parents who bear all the expenses. In the seventh month of a woman's first pregnancy her husband or his parents or nearest kin, present the woman with a new sari in which she is dressed, decked with ornaments and flowers, and along with some young women from the neighbourhood fed on the choicest dishes. As soon as the child is born the mother is given a dose of kalijirem (bitter cummin seed), jirem (cummin seed), black pepper, turmeric, garlic and raw ginger. On the third or sixth night the child is kept still and watched, but no satti or sixth day ceremony is performed except among the Gavads and other low classes.

Baptism.

The rite of Baptism is that laid down by the Roman Catholic Church. On the eighth day the child is taken to the church to be baptised. It is carried by an elderly woman of the house accompanied by other members and two persons termed god-parents who answer in the name of the child the questions put by the priest to the child. Before the party enter the church they are met by the priest in surplice cope and stole. He calls the child by a name which is told him either by the parents or sponsors. In order to drive out the evil spirit and make it give place to the Holy Ghost, the priest thrice breathes upon the face of the child, saying Exi ab eo,' Go out of him.' He then makes the sign of the cross upon the child's forehead and breast, and lays his right hand upon its head repeating verses. Laying a little salt in the child's mouth he again makes the sign of the cross upon its forehead, and repeats verses. After this the priest lays the end of the stole upon the body of the child and admits it into the church, saying, ' Enter into the temple of God that thou mayest have part with Christ into life everlasting: Amen.' When they have entered the church the priest, jointly with the sponsors, recites the Apostles' Creed and the Lord's Prayer. He then wets the point of his thumb with spittle from his mouth and with it touches the child's ears and nostrils and says in Latin in a loud voice, ' Thou too fly away, O Satan.' He then questions the sponsors, and anoints the child with a little holy oil at the middle of the collar-bone and at the end of the spine in the form of a cross. The crown of the child's head is next anointed with holy oil and the priest then takes water in a small vessel and pours it thrice on the child's head, saying, 'I baptise thee in the name of the Father, and the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.' A piece of white linen is laid on the child's head, and the priest lights a candle and sets it in the child's right hand where it is held by the godfather and godmother, and repeating verses closes the rite by saying, ' Go in peace and the Lord be with you: Amen.' The baptism fee varies from Re. 1 to Rs. 5. On returning home the party is treated to sweetmeats or to dinner. After dinner the eldest woman in the house lifts the child and all in turn bless it, dropping into its hands copper or silver coins which are made into ornaments for its use. When all have given their blessings, the child is laid in the cradle, and rocked by women who, when they rock, call down on the child all manner of blessings. If an infant is sick it may at any time be baptised at its parents' house, either by the priest or by some intelligent member of the family who has learnt the formula. After recovery the child is taken to church to have the holy oil applied. On the fortieth day some parents take the child to church, and the mother also goes and is purified. On that day or after an interval of two, three or five months, the young mother goes back to her husband's house taking the child and some presents of sweet rice-flour balls, cocoanuts, boiled gram, and clothes, When the child is a year or two old the boy's hair is cut or shaved and the girl's ears are pierced with some ceremony. In both cases neighbour's children are feasted.

Marriage.

Although the community has adopted many new customs after their conversion to Christianity, some of their old customs are still apparent in their marriage and other allied ceremonies. Generally boys and girls are married after the ages of 20 and 14 years respectively. In olden days marriages were prearranged by the parents without any previous acquaintanceship between the couple. Now-a-days, most marriages take place after the parties concerned have been acquainted with each other at least for some time, and have agreed to it; others, though rare, are love marriages. Peculiar; Hindu customs persist, such as the dowry system, seeking a girl from one's own caste, etc. The tendency among young people is to ignore such customs. For the purpose of marriage, people are regarded as belonging to such principal divisions as Baman, Renar, Gavade Carade, etc. which to some extent still persist to be endogamous.

Among Roman Catholics (and other Christians) certain types of relatives come under prohibitive degree for the purpose of marriage If marriage between such relatives is found necessary, dispensation or permission may be granted by the higher church authorities. Widow marriage is not forbidden, but rare; divorce is unknown. [For the Christians, marriage is a permanent irrevocable contract between a man and woman. In the Christian conception of marriage, there is no room for divorce as this understanding is clearly implicit in the promises which the man and wife make during their nuptials.] When a match has been privately arranged, the boy's relations or friends go by appointment to the girl's house, and in the presence of a witness or two are formally asked if they accept the girl on certain conditions as to the amount of dowry, etc. Among the well-to-do a written contract is drawn up and two copies are made one for each party. Rings or other articles of jewellery are also exchanged between the boy and the girl, the boy's sister or sister-in-law decks the girl's hair with flowers and the girl shows the ring or the articles presented by the boy to the assembled guests. Refreshments and sweetmeats are served and if the boy's party have come from a distance, this is sometimes followed by a dinner or supper. After this betrothal which is known as mudi ceremony, marriage may take place in a few weeks. Soon after preliminaries are settled it is usual for the bride and bridegroom accompanied by friends and relations to start from their houses for the parish church where the priest verifies the contract by asking both the parties whether they have agreed to the marriage. When both say they have agreed, the priest announces in open church that the parties are going to marry, and that if any one has any objection to the match he should come forward and state it. This announcement is made on three successive Sundays. On any convenient day after the third announcement the marriage is celebrated in the parish church. At the houses both of the girl and the boy two sheds called matavs are built, a guest shed in front of the house and a cooking-shed behind. In the cooking-shed a band of married women prepare earthen hearths, singing Konkani songs. When the hearths are ready sweetmeats or cocoa-kernel and molasses are handed round. This is called roshio ghalcho. Three or four days before the wedding the lower classes send two or more youths from house to house with country music asking people to the marriage. The upper classes send written invitations and do not employ country music. Besides the formal invitation the mother and the father or a kinsman of the bride and bridegroom go to their particular friends or relations to compliment them. To friends and relations who live at a great distance invitations are sent in time to enable them to attend. A day or two before the wedding, particular friends and relations send presents of vegetables, fowls, pigs, liquors and sweetmeats. During this time married female neighbours grind curry-stuffs, rice-flour and other articles for the wedding, singing Konkani songs as they work. This is called dalop. On the evening of the second day before the marriage day the bridegroom and the bride sit with one or two men and maids in their houses and are rubbed with cocoanut milk while Konkani songs are sung. When the rubbing is over they are bathed. This is called roslaucho. On the morning of the day before the wedding the bride and bridegroom, with the bride's maids and the best men, attend mass and receive the communion in their parish church. In the evening a dinner is given to the poor with the object of satisfying the souls of the deceased members of the family. This is called almachem jevan or the dinner for departed souls. On the wedding day the guests appear at the appointed time. The bridegroom dressed in a full Europeon suit—a black felt hat, an evening frock coat, and light waistcoat and trousers, and accompanied by his best man generally walks to' the church in the company of Ms friends and relatives. Before leaving his house he stands with his hands clapsed on his chest in front of the saint's altar or niche and the elder members of the household and the elder guests walk up to him and give him their blessing, waving their right hands in the form of the Cross before his clapsed hands. The bride is dressed in a sari either of silk or of cotton of any shade but black, with silk or lace border. It is worn hanging like a petticoat from the hips to the ankles. The upper part of her body is covered by a tight fitting bodice. Over the bodice she wears the white church cloak, which serves both for cloak and for veil. Her head, wrists, neck and fingers are almost covered with gold ornaments which the poor borrow from the well-to-do. The head, besides being ornamented with gold, is decked with a profusion of flowers, jasmines, Christmas roses and yellow amaranths. Thus attired and surrounded by the bridesmaids, the bride, like the bridegroom with bowed head receives in her house her friend's blessings. In her left hand she holds a square handkerchief with which she repeatedly hides her face. When the bride has received the good wishes of her friends her party starts, in procession with band music to the church. The bridegroom leaves his house about the same time. When the two parties have met in the church, the priest, dressed in a surplice and white stole and accompanied by at least one clerk to carry the book and a vessel of holy water, and by two or three witnesses, asks the bridegroom who stands at the right of the bride, 'Wilt thou take A. B. for thy lawful wife according to the rites of our Holy Mother, the Church?' The bridegroom answers ' I will'. Then the priest puts the same question to the bride, and she answers in the same words as the bridegroom. The priest then joins the right hands of the couple, saying ' I join you in matrimony in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost: Amen'. While he says this he sprinkles their hands with holy water. This is done in the presence of witnesses whose names are entered in the marriage register. When this is done the bridegroom places upon the book gold and silver, which are presents to be delivered into the hands of the bride, and also a ring which the priest blesses with holy water and returns. The bridegroom then puts the ring on the third finger of the bride's left hand saying meanwhile, 'With this ring I thee wed, this gold I thee give, with my body I thee worship, and with all my worldly goods I thee endow'. The ceremony is generally completed between eight and ten in the morning. When it is over the bridegroom and the bride walk hand in hand to the middle of the chancel of the church, where they remain kneeling and sitting during a mass which was begun soon after the marriage ceremony. After reading the Gospel the priest delivers a sermon in Konkani on the responsibilities of married life, and at the close of the mass he blesses the newly married couple. When the ceremony is over the company form in procession, sometimes led by musicians, the bride and bridegroom coming next in a carriage or walking holding hands or arms in arm and the wedding guests following. When they reach the marriage booth married women of the bridegroom's family stand outside and sing merry songs in Konkani, the bride's people praising the bridegroom, while inside the booth a band of friends sing the bride's praises. This lasts for about half an hour. When it is over the father of the bridegroom asks all guests to come into the booth and the Laudate or Praise is sung. On entering the booth the bride is taken into the house and the bridegroom and best men sit on a sofa in the booth. Or, as among the upper classes, the newly married couple stands at the entrance of the booth to receive their friends' congratulations. Each friend in turn throws a few flower leaves or sprinkles some drops of rose water on their heads, shaking hands, or if they are near relations kissing or embracing, and, if they have them to give, making presents. Refreshments and sweetmeats are handed round, first to the bridegroom and bride and then to the guests. The bride and bridegroom are then led into the house, and the bride's party pass the time till dinner in singing, joking and making merry. Meanwhile some female relations and friends of the bridegroom, with the leave of the bride's father and mother, enter the house, the bridegroom's elder sister carrying a tray containing presents for the bride, a rich sari and bodice, a gold lucky necklace (mangalsutra or samras) and other articles. On this, the bride is led to the room where the family altar or prayer place is situated and where the bridegroom party is waiting. The mother of the bridegroom if her husband is living, or any other near kinswoman, ties the lucky necklace, which is either wholly of gold with a pendant gold cross, or strings of black glass beads with a pendant gold figure of the infant Jesus, or simple strings of small glass beads with a gold bead in the middle. The bride is next decked with flowers and the gold ornaments which came with the sari, and flowers are handed to the married women who are present. The bride then dresses in the new sari and bodice discarding her old (maiden) dress. Soon after, the bridegroom walks into the house and stands by the side of the bride, and all present say prayers and sing the Litany of the Blessed Virgin. The bridegroom then returns to the booth leading the bride by the hand and is seated with her on a sofa which is set apart for them. The bride sits on the bridegroom's left, the best men on his right and the chief bridesmaid to the left of the bride. When they are seated the bride's parents, the bride's god-parents and next the other kinsfolk make presents of clothes, ornaments and other articles to the couple. After this presents-giving or Besanv ceremony is over the wedding feast is served. Among the well-to-do the wedding dinner may be laid and served in European fashion; the poorer families sit on mats and eat off leaf-plates. It consists either simply of vegetables, curries, rice and fried cakes, or in addition pork, mutton, fowl, fish, bread and sweet gruel. When everything is served the host calls to his guests ' Devachia navan amrut kara, i.e. in god's name feed. When dinner is over they sing, dance and make merry. About midnight, the guests return to their homes, except those who are specially asked to stay over night. Next day after dinner the bridegroom and bride get ready to start for the bridegroom's house. All the elders, both men and women bless them as they did on the wedding day, and drop in their hands gold rings or silver coins. Then, with all the guests, they start in procession for the bridegroom's, and, when they reach the house, they bow before the family altar and receive blessings from the elders of the house. The parents of the bridegroom present the bride with a sari and the sponsors and the relations of the bridegroom give presents to the couple. A dinner, not differing from the dinner given in the bride's booth, is then served. After dinner a ceremony by which the father of the bride makes over his daughter to the parents of the bridegroom with a request to treat her as their own child takes place. She is then led into the house and presented to the family patron-saint to whom she offers short prayer. In the afternoon of the fifth day the couple again returns to the bride's and remains there for five days and, on the sixth, comes back to the bridegroom's, and for about fifteen days the young couple pay visits to their neighbours, friends and relations. After this they either go together or the bride goes alone to her father's house on all great holidays during the first year, and every year during the life time of the bride's parents on the occasion of the parish feast. In widow marriages there is no ceremonial except the simple religious rite in the church.

Death and Funeral.

When sickness takes a fatal turn, the parish priest is sent for, who comes to the house to hear the dying man confess and to give him the communion. The priest anoints him with holy oil, and sits beside him praying and repeating verses. When the sick man is dead the church bell is tolled that the parish may know and offer prayers for his soul. The beadle (Chamdor) goes from house to house telling of the death and the time of the funeral, which generally takes place within twenty-four hours. Arrangements are made with the priest as to the style of the funeral and the position of the grave. [Graves are of two classes: Temporary graves which are liable to be used again, and permanent graves, where the dead can never be disturbed. The latter are costlier than the former, the prices varying in different parisher according to the wealth of the people.] On hearing of the death neighbours come in, the body is washed and decently dressed in church clothes and kept in the hall either on a couch or on a mat spread on the ground over a clean white sheet. At the time named by the beadle most of the villagers attend. The dead's hands are tied together across the chest and a small crucifix is placed in them. At the head is set a larger crucifix with a pair of burning candles. The well-to-do lay the body in coffin and the poor carry it in the church bier. The coffins of the unmarried are lined with white, and the bodies of children under seven are decked with flowers. Six or more candles are set round the coffin or round the body if there is no coffin, and lighted when the priest begins to read or chant the prayers. When the last prayer in finished, if the dead has left a widow she takes off her lucky necklace, earrings and glass, bangles, the signs of married life. If the relatives of the dead cannot pay for the priest's attendance at the grave the priest, in white surplice and black stole, comes to the church at the time fixed for the burial and reads the service. In other cases, accompanied by members of the church brotherhood, with a cross and two candlesticks, the priest goes to the house of the dead dressed in a black cope besides the surplice and stole. The members of the brotherhood wear white cloaks over their holiday clothes and red or green tippets. At the house of mourning the priest sings and blesses the body. Then the body is lifted either in the coffin, or if there is no coffin in the bier, and brought from the house to the church. The coffin or the bier is covered with a black cloth. The funeral party goes in procession, the cross and candlestick bearers leading and then follow members of the brotherhood in pairs about three yards apart. Behind them friends and visitors walk in regular order; then comes the body carried by four men. As they move along, the church bell tolls and the priests and choristers chant hymns. At the church or at the grave the service is read with fewer or more prayers, according to the arrangement made with the priest. When the body or coffin is lowered in the grave the priest first puts a few handfuls of earth over it and then the mourners follow. When the service is over all return to the house of mourning, and the guest condole with the members of the family, holding their hands or embracing them if they are near relations. On the day of death there is seldom any cooking in the house of mourning as relatives and friends generally supply the mourners with cooked food. On the seventh day all the mourners with their friends and relations go to the church and a solemn office and mass are sung for the repose of the soul of the dead, and all persons who attend are given breakfast and dinner which do not differ from those given on festive occasions. The office and mass are repeated on the thirteenth day and at the end of the year, and in some cases every year. An ordinary mass is performed on every death-day during the lifetime of the next-of-kin, and a general commemoration of the dead is held on All Saints' Day on the second of November by the second and later generations. Mourning continues for a year during which no marriage or other joyous ceremony is performed. On the first death-day, friends and relations are asked to attend the service at the church and also feasted at home.

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