Waula Day

Overcast with occasional sunny spells today. Yesterday was St German's Day in the Church in Wales, but in the CofE and the Roman Catholic Church he's celebrated on 31st July. Not that it matters much  these days when fewer weekday services and festivals are celebrated, and festivals are transferred to Sundays. I drove there for Mass, celebrated in style, starting with the Litany of the Saints, and procession with a relic of St German, whatever that may be. Pilgrimages to Auxerre Cathedral where he was buried still happen occasionally, but at some stage either during the Reformation or the Revolution, I can't remember which, the ancient shrine was desecrated and any traces mortal remains disposed of. 

What passes as a relic may be a piece of stone from that shrine, acquired as a pious souvenir at some time in the past. I don't recall in my years of association with the church, seeing the relic carried in procession before. To his credit Fr Jarel preached a thoughtful sermon referring to the value and purpose of relics. It doesn't appeal to me. A saint's legacy as far as I'm concerned is bound up with their life story and insights their teaching gives into the Gospels and Christ. It was good to see Basma in church again after a period of illness. She showed me with enthusiasm the residence permit card that makes it possible to live and work in Britain. She now has three weeks to move out of the accommodation provided by the Home Office into whatever place the City Council can provide by means of emergency shelter. The waiting list for proper social housing is long. The weeks ahead will be very uncertain for her indeed.

It was twenty past one by the time I got home even though city centre traffic was light and the journey just fifteen minutes. Clare had made lunch and started ahead of me. I had sent her a text message when I left, but forgotten to switch my phone out of aeroplane mode. 

I had a siesta after eating, then went for a walk to Thompson's Park to see if I could get better moorhen photos with my Sony Alpha 68.. I wasn't impressed with the result, I couldn't get the auto-focus to budge from foreground leaves to the chicks behind at the centre of the image. While the long zoom lens I use works well, a full extent, hand held shooting is not as sharp. It's a budget DSLR from eight years ago, without the image stabilisation software from more expensive models. It's better to carry a tripod for sharper long lens shots. I heard that parakeet squawking again from another stand of trees on the hill above the pond, and then saw two gulls harassing a third bird, driving it out of their territory, but I wasn't able to see its colour beneath a cloudy sky.

Then I went into Llandaff Fields where I was surprised to see in the top field an all age family gathering of about a hundred people playing a party game akin to musical chairs, instructed by a young lady with a microphone. An improvised sign attached to a nearby tree announced a 'Waula Day' event, Googling the word produced a puzzling array of bizarre answers. Only later did I discover that Waula is the name of a region in the Punjab. 

From the clothes people wore the gathering was clearly an Asian Muslim community celebration. Perhaps they were members of the Bilal mosque in Severn Road. The atmosphere was joyous, fun filled and well organised, with food and a couple of canopies for sun shelters. Not that they were needed. Given the evil outbreak of islamophobic attacks and public disorder generated by extreme right fanatics on social media in this past few days, it was an impressive show of confidence and courage to carry on with this event, and a measure, I hope and pray, of the good-will towards a long established Cardiff community of expat elders and the rising generations of Asian Brits who know no other home.

I try to imagine a similar social event organised in the Fields by a parish or group of churches, but have to admit that numbers and comparable spread of participants' ages would be be hard to muster. Sadly fewer urban churches have that measure of social cohesion, numbers or sense of local identity and longer.

After supper, I watched the remaining episodes of 'High Country', full of surprises and a little confusing, involving cannabis farming in remote forest and baby trafficking as well as related murders, but the scenic backdrop was enchanting.