Sukkot

Ganapathy's Lemon, Valli Naranga or Ertog, mostly available at our Puja Material shops near temples.

In our temples we offer "Valli Naranga" to Ganapathi.

For the festival of Sukkot at the Synagogue Ertog is an integral part of the Lulav (the four kinds bound together). This year the man who supplies the Ertog said his plant has dried out last summer and no fruit is available.
For the Sukkot booth decoration we found some at Venu's shop at Thripunithura East Fort near the temple.

The fact that the Ertog is used in temples for Ganapathi worship was a learning experience for us.

Its popularly known as Ganapathy's lemon.

Yom Kippur

The old board that is hung outside our Mattancherry Synagogue announcing the synagogue is closed to tourists on that day.

Care taker Joy at the door to turn back the hundreds of tourists who came visiting. This year's Yom Kippur coincided with  a local holiday (Vijaya Dashmi) the monument attracted large tourist crowd.

Over 200 years old, our clock tower has been part of every celebration, but now with a handful of members in the community and the few tourists who attended the service, the tower stood nostalgically reminiscing a glorious past when the Synagogue was full and cheerful with grown ups and children. 

Our synagogue was closed to tourists on Yom Kippur which started on the Sunset on Friday evening and lasted till the sunset of Saturday evening.

Yom Kippur is considered to be most important of the holidays when believers are considered to be the most closest to God.

It was on this day, the tenth day of the month of Trishei, Moses came down from the Mount Sinai with the stone tablets containing the laws of life for his people.

On this day of fasting, everyone atone for their sins and begs pardon for going away from G-d.

On the eve of Yom Kippur the heart breaking Kol Nidrei prayer brings all the believers to the synagogue as it is the prayer which makes all the believers as one as they begs together for the mercy of The One G-d for the times they have moved away from Him due to circumstances out of their control.

On the day of Yom Kippur the prayer starts in the morning then it continues in the afternoon till the evening when shofar will be blown announcing the end of Yom Kippur after the sunset.

On this day the believers are considered to be like angels, close to G-d, they dress like them in white.

Standing outside the Synagogue in the evening I could hear the Shofar blowing announcing the end of Yom Kippur and the majestic clock on the tower, which has witnessed and was part of the festivities for more than two centuries chime away the hours, nostalgically.