For Syrian Christians in India, Easter revolves around faith and food

For many in the community, religion reshapes their appetites during the Holy Week

Despite moving away from her roots in Kerala to set up a base in Mumbai (then Bombay) in the early 1990s, Sara Jacob Nair, co-founder of the popular Nair on Fire that serves up homestyle Kerala food, has tried to preserve the imprint of traditions and celebrations that reflects her lineage. Born into a Syrian Christian family from Angamaly, a small city in the district of Ernakulam, Kerala, Nair recounts the days leading up to Easter—the more sombre of the two festivals the Christian community celebrates in a calendar year.

“I grew up in a very liberal household, where my father, who worked for the country’s Research and Analysis Wing, believed in spirituality instead of religion. So we were encouraged to pray to a higher being, whoever that may be. But during Lent, we would fast, not because we were guided by tenets of the Syro-Malabar or Syro-Malankara rites but because my father viewed a ritual fast as the ultimate detox for the body,” she says. While this practice may be considered sacrilege by members of the Syrian Christian community, Nair believes she grew up in a home where she was allowed to foster a connection with God that was deeply personal to her. 

Syrian Christians and Jews lived in and around Cochin, Kerala, for nearly 1,000 years before Vasco da Gama and St. Francis Xavier  arrived on the shores in 1498 CE and 1542 CE respectively. The Jews have been present since the year 69 CE, and the Syrian Christians since at least 325 CE. The arrival in India around the third century of East Syriac settlers and missionaries from Persia—members of what would become the Church of the East—marks the beginning of an organised Christian presence in India. 

Observing Lent

When observing Lent, India holds a unique position with 168 dioceses, 29 of which are Syro-Malabar, eight are Syro-Malankara, and 131 Latin dioceses. The Latin-rite Christians of India and Kerala follow the Roman liturgy, introduced by European missionaries, towards the end of the first half of the second millennium. In contrast, the other two Oriental Churches follow Syrian liturgies and customs, claiming their origin, along with half a dozen other Kerala-based Churches, to the apostolate of St. Thomas, one of the 12 disciples of Christ.

The Syro-Malabar Church has a liturgy based on the East Syriac or Chaldean tradition. In contrast, the Syro-Malankara liturgy is based on the West-Syriac tradition of the Jacobite-Orthodox Christians. 

It’s important to note that Lent is practised differently in these rites. While Lent starts with Ash Wednesday for the Latins, it begins two days earlier for the Syrians, with Ash Monday. During Lent, both Latin and Syrian families adopt a vegetarian diet and give up alcohol. The method of calculating 40 days in the East and West differs. In principle, the Sundays of Lent are not days of fasting. The Easterners count from Monday of the first week of Lent till Saturday before Palm Sunday (36 days), adding Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of the Holy Week to make it 40. However, the Western practice counts the weekdays of all six weeks of Lent (6x6=36), plus Ash Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of the week before the first Sunday of Lent, adding up to 40 days. In the Syro-Malabar practice, the period of Lent is also called “50 Nombu”. This is because all the days of Lent, including Sundays (amounting to 50 days), are practically counted as days of abstention.

Setting the table

In the Christian calendar worldwide, the Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday, which precedes Easter by a week, following which Maundy Thursday is commemorated as Jesus’ Last Supper. For Syrian Christians, attending church service or mass in the evening is followed by family celebrations. Maundy Thursday sees the preparation of several items unique to Syro-Malabar cuisine. However, before beginning preparations, cleaning the entire house thoroughly is customary.

Among the items prepared are Pesaha Appam or Kurishappam (unleavened bread), which only makes an appearance on Maundy Thursday. The dish is made with rice and urad dal paste, flavoured with additions like cumin seeds, shallots, salt, and grated coconut. Unlike regular appam batter, the Kurishappam batter is not subject to fermentation; it is cooked in a steamer soon after mixing. Before the batter is lowered into the steamer, it is garnished with two segments of blessed palm leaf arranged in the shape of a cross, and is considered holy. Indri Appam is another dish that finds pride of place on any Maundy Thursday menu—a preparation made using the batter left over from making the Kurishappam. The dish is cooked in a steamer in molds made using banana leaves.

Pesaha Paal, a beverage made by boiling coconut milk with jaggery, cumin seeds, cardamom, dried ginger powder, and salt, is also prepared. A cross fashioned out of palm leaves is added to the mixture before it is boiled to bless the beverage, which is considered holy. And then there’s usually Vattayappam, a steamed rice cake with a slight sweetness and fermented rice batter. The dish features the addition of cashews and raisins. 

Good Friday is considered a day of fasting, with Syrian Christians opting to break the fast with lunch rather than dinner. The lunch comprises simple vegetarian dishes, namely kanji (rice porridge), Vanpayar thoran (parboiled red cowpeas stir-fried with grated coconut and spices), papad, and pickle, which is served in a manchatti (earthen bowl).

The main dish for breakfast on Easter in these homes is usually appam or pidi (a rice dumpling), served with either a chicken curry or stew. Beef roast and duck may be prepared in some sub-regions. 

Fond memories

A champion of ethnic cuisine, chef Regi Mathew, who hails from Pala (near the Kottayam district of Kerala), referred to as the ‘city of churches’, even though it can hardly be called a city at all, remembers the traditions that his family would follow growing up. “For us, The Holy Week was about connecting with God, self-reflection, and pious living. In Pala, every street has a church. The Syrian Christian community is the majority in this little town. On Maundy Thursday, which commemorates how Jesus celebrated his final Passover with his Apostles by washing the feet of his 12 disciples as a selfless act of modesty and humbleness, the family’s oldest member cuts the Pesaha Appam after saying a short prayer. Suppose the head of the family has siblings. In that case, the ceremony is first conducted at the eldest sibling’s house, after which it may be repeated at others’ houses, provided that they are in the vicinity,” says Mathew, who co-owns and is the culinary director of Kappa Chakka Kandhari, a popular Kerala cuisine restaurant in Chennai and Bengaluru. 

A quick scan of Mathew’s Easter menu for anyone looking to enjoy a traditional Syrian Christian meal, includes a mutton coconut fry cooked with Kerala spices and slivered coconut. Most homes go all out to rustle up non-vegetarian dishes on Easter, given their abstinence from meat during Lent. Then there’s the Syrian Erachi Fry, a slow-roasted Tenderloin, a toddy shop specialty. The Quail Egg Roast and Idiyappam Prawn Moilee (cooked in delicate coconut milk curry served with steamed rice string hoppers) are among the other dishes whose aromas fill every Syrian Christian household. “Most households prioritise breakfast and lunch, having regular fare or leftovers for dinner. Distributing Easter eggs is an alien concept to folks from my generation; we generally consumed the fruits available in the season,” says Mathew. 

For Nair, fond memories of having a glass of toddy, mainly reserved for the household’s male members, remain etched in her mind. “A standout dish on Easter in my home, which I prepare every year for lunch, is the Angamaly pork. Pork is the king of Angamaly’s cuisine. For every function held in the area, meat items are compulsory. It is a standing joke that the people of Angamaly prefer to have a couple of pieces of meat, even in a vegetable curry,” she says. 

Angamaly was also the administrative centre for Syrian Christians and the seat of India’s first Portuguese bishop. This implies that the region’s distinct cuisine has a five-century history. Angamaly’s ancient Christian families lived in 18-and-a-half ‘cheris’ (slums) and prioritised pork in their kitchens.

New traditions

Given that most Gen Zs are religiously unaffiliated and don’t subscribe to anything that doesn’t feel authentic, several young Syrian Christians look to create their own traditions come Easter. For Mumbai-based journalist Shweta Sunny, whose family hails from Kottyam but now calls Mumbai home, believes religion “isn’t as important a focal point of life for our generation as it was for my parents. I do share a strong relationship with God, but don’t necessarily subscribe to the Christian idea of attending mass in church. I do say prayers and attend virtual mass but that’s about it. My parents and their parents centered their lives around religion, mostly because that’s where they got their sense of community.”

There may be another reason to explain why Gen Z and most millennials leave religion. Sunny believes the younger generations are questioning religious authority now more than ever. “The way [millennials and zoomers] practice their religion is probably different than it was in their grandparents’ generations. With Gen Z, there’s been a reexamination of core beliefs and a clearer understanding of what they actually need from a faith institution,” she says. 

Also Read: Why the Armenian community doesn’t get enough credit for advancing rugby in India

Also Read: Goa’s new cafe focuses on the local community instead of being another tourist spot

Also Read: Is Goa’s culinary heritage disappearing?