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As the overview[link] of Khasi and Pnar Catholicism notes, religion before the arrival of Christianity was not organized around temples, churches, or ordained leaders, but was largely home- and clan-based. Khasi and Pnar Catholicism, on the other hand, is highly organized through very visible institutions like parishes, schools, hospitals, and service agencies. At the same time, the home remains a particularly important place for prayer, echoing traditional religion. Catholic families often decorate and utilize the main room of the house for prayer as well as social purposes. Families host

Whether compared to mainland Indian norms or norms in other parts of the world, family and gender roles are undoubtedly among the most interesting characteristics of Khasi and Pnar (Jaintia) life. Family is the central, determinative social institution here, but the organization of family life, including for Catholics, differs markedly from the father-as-head-of-household structure that Catholicism often idealizes. In interviews, people from “mainland” India frequently commented on how very different Khasi and Pnar cultures are from their own in terms of family and gender roles.1 1The entries

November 2, All Souls’ Day, is a day of significance in the Catholic Church worldwide, though in some places it passes without much attention and in a growing number of countries is overshadowed by Halloween. For Khasi and Pnar communities of Meghalaya, India, All Souls’ Day is one of the major Catholic events of the year.1 Catholic families celebrate it by cleaning and decorating graves with flowers, lighting candles on them, and celebrating Mass in the cemetery. The All Souls celebration in the capital, Shillong, which lasts 1Halloween, incidentally, is not celebrated in this region.

As is true in many parts of the world, the pattern and priority of feasts in the Khasi and Jainta homeland has its own local rhythm. Christmas and Easter draw the highest Mass attendance of the year, though Christmas is not otherwise celebrated with all of the cultural fanfare (or distraction) that defines it in many parts of the world. Asked if there was anything special that they did for Christmas, such as the way people in some cultures decorate extensively or exchange presents, one person’s answer covers what others said: “We didn’t do anything. We just get cakes… We go for Mass… that is

Any attempt to describe Indian Catholic life in broad terms runs up against the genuine diversity of a country misperceived by many foreigners to be culturally and linguistically monolithic. The Northeast region, primarily bounded by Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, and China, yet linked to the rest of India by a narrow land bridge, is one place where India’s diversity is particularly apparent. The Northeast region not only stands out culturally, linguistically, and religiously from “mainland” India but is also incredibly diverse within. It is the only part of India to have states that are

Authors: Thomas M. Landy and José Antonio Vergara1 Yumbel, a city of about 20,000 people near the Bío Bío River, is the home to the largest devotional event in the southern region of Chile, the feast of San Sebastián. Culminating on January 20 during the height of summer in Chile, the celebration 1José Antonio Vergara, MD, is a public health specialist who teaches Anthropology of Health to medical students at Universidad San Sebastián, Puerto Montt, Chile. The account here is based on a visit to the feast in January, 2024, including conversations with more than a dozen feast-goers.

Authors: Thomas M. Landy and José Antonio Vergara1 For more than 175 years, Catholics in Chile’s Central Valley have gathered on the first Sunday after Easter to “ correr a Cristo, ” “ride with Christ” in a vibrant horseback cavalcade known as Cuasimodo. Dozens, sometimes even thousands of satin-costumed cuasimodistas ride through city streets and country roads to accompany the Eucharist while their pastor, who rides in a horse 1José Antonio Vergara, MD, is a public health specialist who teaches Anthropology of Health to medical students at Universidad San Sebastián, Puerto Montt, Chile.

In one sense, Mary and the saints are ubiquitous in Malta. Their names are found along streets on small signs that identify houses and as namesakes of hospitals, clubs, and even political organizations. Six Marian or saints’ days are public holidays nationwide: the feasts of St. Paul's Shipwreck, St. Joseph, St. Peter and St. Paul, the Assumption, Our Lady of Victories, and the Immaculate Conception. The grandest and most important social event of the year in any village is its feast[link] in honor of the town’s patron saint. Many villages have more than one feast, and at those feasts, the

Maltese life has been transformed in many ways over the last 50 years. The islands have become more prosperous, more integrated into Europe, more diverse, more committed to neoliberal economic models, and more secular. Of all the changes, one area often noted by interviewees when talking about Catholic life on the islands concerned changes around family life and gender norms.1 1Undoubtedly, all of these phenomena are interrelated. In addition to the sources cited below, the research supporting this site’s articles on Malta are based on twelve in-depth interviews and many informal

Malta, an island nation in the Mediterranean almost 200 km south of Sicily, is actually comprised of a group of islands quite close to each other, two of which are inhabited: Malta, home to about 480,000 people in 2021, and Gozo, home to about 39,000 people in 2021.1 Though part of the European Union, it lies further south in the Mediterranean than the North African cities of Tunis and Algiers. The country’s primary language 1In these Catholics & Cultures articles, the “Malta” should be assumed to speak of the country as a whole, not simply Malta Island, unless otherwise specified.