4,000 devotees attend Kachchaitheevu St. Antony’s church annual festival

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 March 2010, 11:39 GMT]
More than 4,000 devotees attended the annual festival of historically famous St. Antony’s church in Kachchaitheevu, an islet on the sea boundary between Sri Lanka and India, sources in Jaffna said. After period of nearly 23 years devotees from Sri Lanka and India had gathered at Kachchaitheevu to worship and participate in the festival, the sources added. Rear Admiral of Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) for north, Weerasekara, was present at the festival which took place Saturday and Sunday.

The festival flag was hoisted on Saturday followed by Holy Communion and mass. Sunday the holy statue of St. Antony was taken in procession after which the festival ended.

Rev. Fr. Anton Amalraj, the parish priest of Nedunththeevu diocese, conducted the worship and festival rituals with the assistance of Rev. Fr. Michael Raj who had come from Raameasvaram along with 12 priests.

The devotees from Paampan, Thangkachchimadam and Ma’ndapam areas came through Raameasvaram and devotees from Jaffna and Mannaar in Sri Lanka had come to the festival after long period.

There were more people from the districts of Sivakangai, Raamanaathapuram and Thi’ndukkal from Tamil Nadu attending the festival.

The devotees from India were escorted by Indian Navy up to the sea boundary between India and Sri Lanka and SLN took them to Kachchaitheevu from there.

The festival had not taken place from 1978 t0 2001 after which though important rituals were allowed until 2005 devotees were not permitted to take part in them.