The Syro-Malabar Church

Denomination·Founded 1599 CE·est. ~5.5 million by the 2023 Annuario Pontificio, in Kerala, the rest of India and a large migrant diaspora.

Judaism → Christianity → Catholicism → The Eastern Catholic Churches → The Syro-Malabar Church

The Syro-Malabar Church

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Precept of The Syro-Malabar Church

Fast the fifty and the twenty-five.

The great fast before Easter runs fifty days and the fast before Christmas twenty-five, and both are kept as household practice — no meat, in many families no fish, and a smaller table. Kerala Christian households traditionally hand what the fast saves to the parish, which distributes it. Nombu, the Malayalam word for the fast, is used for the season as a whole.

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What it asksFast the twenty-five days and the fifty days, and give the money saved to the parish poor fund
Who it bindsHouseholds; the parish keeps the list
Where it bitesIn the Gulf and in North America, where the fasting seasons pass unnoticed outside the house
Understanding it — context, not catechism: how this passage is held

The fifty-day fast before Easter and the twenty-five-day fast before Christmas are the two large seasons; there are also shorter fasts before the Assumption and the feast of Saint Thomas. Practice varies between generations and between Kerala and the diaspora, and the church has not narrowed the rules as far as the Latin church has. The custom of giving the fast's savings to the parish poor fund is old and is still organised through the parish rather than through any agency. Migrant families in the Gulf have kept the seasons more visibly than those in Europe, according to the eparchies' own reports.

The same ground, other faiths

claims that share this one's ideas
Fast together, and give away what the fast saves. The Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church Go deeper →
Ekadashi — the fast that comes twice a month. Hinduism · rite Go deeper →
The alms round. Buddhism · rite Go deeper →
Paryushana. Jainism · rite Go deeper →
Repairing the world is human work. Judaism · core tenet Go deeper →
Love of God and neighbor is the whole law. Christianity · core tenet Go deeper →

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