Velankanni
| Velankanni வேளாங்கண்ணி |
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 India
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| State : | Tamil Nadu | ||
| District : | Nagapattinam | ||
| Sub-district : | Kilvelur | ||
| Location : | 10 ° 41 ′ N , 79 ° 51 ′ E | ||
| Residents : | 11,108 (2011) | ||
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Velankanni ( Tamil : வேளாங்கண்ணி Vēḷāṅkaṇṇi [ ˈʋeːɭaːŋɡəɳːi ]; also Velanganni , Vailankanni ) is a place in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu with around 11,000 inhabitants (2011 census). As the place of an apparition of Mary , Velankanni is the most important Catholic pilgrimage site in India and is known as the " Lourdes of the East".
geography
Velankanni is located on the Coromandel Coast on the Bay of Bengal in the Nagapattinam district of the state of Tamil Nadu. The next largest city is the district capital Nagapattinam 12 kilometers north, after Chennai (Madras), the capital of Tamil Nadu, it is 320 kilometers. South of the village, the Vellayar, one of the numerous estuary branches in the Delta Kaveri River, flows into the sea.
There are numerous traffic connections via the nearby Nagapattinam. A train station in Velankanni and a ten-kilometer branch line from Nagapattinam are currently under construction, through which Velankanni is to be connected to the railway network.
Velankanni belongs to the area of the Indian coast that was hit hardest by the tsunami on December 26, 2004. In Velankanni itself, the tsunami killed over 2000 people. Velankanni was particularly hard hit because there were many pilgrims in town because of the Christmas celebrations.
population
Despite its importance as a Christian place of pilgrimage, the majority of Velankanni's population is Hindu . According to the 2011 census, 62 percent of the population are Hindu, 31 percent are Christians and 6 percent are Muslims . As in all of Tamil Nadu, the main language is Tamil, which is spoken by almost 100 percent of the population as their mother tongue.
Religious meaning
Due to the missionary work of the Portuguese , who maintained a base in Nagapattinam, there were Catholics in the area as early as the 16th century . Around 1600 there are said to have been three apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Velankanni . A church was built on the site of the apparition of Mary, which was rebuilt and expanded several times, most recently in 1974/75. In 1962, Pope John XXIII exalted the church of Velankanni to the rank of minor basilica . In its current form, the Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health is a whitewashed neo-Gothic building with an approx. 110 meter long nave and two approx. 40 meter long transepts . The crossing is crowned by a 28 meter high octagon , the portal is flanked by two 25 meter high church towers .
The Basilica of Velankanni is " Our Lady of Health" ( english Our Lady of Good Health , Tamil ஆரோக்கிய மாதா Arokkiya Mata ordained). The pilgrimage to Velankanni is said to have healing powers. Numerous pilgrims come to Velankanni and pray for the healing of their diseases. People who have been healed after a pilgrimage often donate replicas of the healed body parts made of gold or silver. Similar to the practice of Hindu pilgrimages, many pilgrims have their hair shaved (see temple hair ). In addition to Catholics, the Velankanni Basilica is also visited by local Hindus and Muslims .
Velankanni is the most important Christian pilgrimage site in India. The eleven-day church festival alone, which takes place every year in August / September, attracts an estimated two million pilgrims. The highlight of the festival is a procession in which an image of Mary is pulled through the city on a processional float (similar to the Hindu temple floats ). For pilgrims flocking to Velankanni from different parts of India, masses are held in eight different languages: Tamil , English , Malayalam , Kannada , Telugu , Konkani , Hindi and Marathi .
literature
- Brigitte Sebastia: Māriyamman-Mariyamman. Catholic Practices and Image of Virgin in Velankanni (Tamil Nadu). Pondicherry: French Institute of Pondicherry, 2002.
- Matthias Frenz: God's mother goddess. Marian devotion in the field of tension between religious traditions in South India. Würzburg: Ergon, 2004.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Census of India 2011.
- ^ PV Srividya: Grand railway station nearing completion, The Hindu , July 28, 2010.
- ↑ Alpa Sheth, Snigdha Sanyal, Arvind Jaiswal and Prathibha Gandhi: "Effects of the December 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami on the Indian Mainland", Earthquake Spectra , Volume 22 (2006), p. 452. (PDF; 4.5 MB)
- ^ Census of India 2011: C-1 Population By Religious Community. Tamil Nadu.
- ↑ Census of India 2001: C-16 City: Population by Mother Tongue (Tamil Nadu), accessed under Tabulations Plan of Census Year - 2001 .
- ↑ S. Bageshree: Mother of good health beckons all, The Hindu, January 25, 2011.