Kerala debates to drink or not this Christmas

FOR A DRY CHRISTMAS: Mar Varkey Vidayathil has urged his flock to be sober this Christmas.

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Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala has the dubious distinction of the highest per capita consumption of alcohol in the country, and come festivals tipplers, across religious lines, go on an overdrive.

So, this time before Christmas Major Archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church Mar Varkey Vidayathil has urged his flock to be sober.

“Whenever there is Christmas, Easter or any such celebration, people drink a lot especially in Kerala. So I have asked the believers of at least my diocese to stay away from alcohol this time,” Vidayathil said.

But many feel it's up to the individual to decide whether Christmas should be celebrated with or without a drink or two.

“The bishop just cannot come out and say that you cannot drink. Christmas is the time to enjoy. It’s the individual's wish to drink or not. We Christians celebrate all occasions with drinks. Nobody can force somebody not to do it,” a politician, Thampan Thomas said.

But others feel drinking dominates festivities far too much, and is not the only way to celebrate something as auspicious as Christmas.

“During Christmas a lot of liquor is consumed. The spirit of a family re-union is lost when the drinks come in and people get so drunk that they have no time to spend with the family. In a way it’s good that bishop has at least urged the people of his diocese to stay away from liquor,” a Catholic Christian Sajan Francis said.

For the average Malayalee who considers every moment of celebration as an occasion to drink, this call by the bishop comes across as a dampener of spirits. It’s now upto the Catholic community in Kerala to set an example for the rest to follow.