Mumbai: COVID-19 restrictions cause Bandra’s Malla village to break from tradition during Holy Week

On Good Friday, a purple cloth is used to decorate the Cross

Since its inception in the 18th century, the Cross located in Bandra's Malla village, has served as a congregation point for people of different faiths - especially during the season of Lent - when groups gather here to pray on three auspicious days i.e. Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday (before Easter Sunday). However, in recent years, it is 57-year-old Michele Lawrence's tradition that binds everyone in Malla during Lent and Easter. For the past five years, Lawrence has been decorating the Malla Cross with fresh palms and a red cloth on Palm Sunday, which serves as a reminder to everyone passing of the Holy Week of Lent.

Michele Lawrence decorates the Cross on each of the Tridom days (Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday-Easter Sunday). Pics/Atul Kamble

Lawrence's tradition

Come Good Friday, the red cloth is changed to a purple one and adorned with a crown of thorns that symbolises the death of Christ. Finally, on Easter Sunday, the cloth is changed to white and decorated with fresh flowers to symbolise hope and new life. But given the recent surge in the number of novel Coronavirus cases in Mumbai, and the successive government restrictions imposed on public gatherings, the Malla Cross remains relatively free of gatherings this year.

"During the month of May, around 30 of us community members get together and stand around the Cross to pray the rosary," said Lawrence, speaking to mid-day. "During Lent, community members from Malla get together and visit different Crosses in our village - and one of the visits is here. But we cannot do that this year because of the pandemic. We cannot get together in groups and pray. People can come here individually to pray…but we miss praying here together as a community."

When asked what prompted her to take this initiative of decorating the Malla Cross every year, she said, "We put up a crib at the Cross every year during Christmas…but I felt like Easter is the bigger of the two feasts and we don't do enough for it. That is when I started decorating the Cross in a manner relevant to Easter and changed the colours on each of the Tridom days (Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday-Easter Sunday). People really liked the idea and it soon became a community thing in Malla. Since then, I make sure that I decorate the Cross every year."

So why decorate the Cross this year - in the midst of rising COVID-19 case numbers which prevents people from gathering here to pray? She says, "One does this for the good of the community and for God. Whatever you do for others, you are also doing for the Lord."