“Hare Krishna!”, “Merry Christmas!” – These words will fill the People’s Park on 24-25-26 December, where the Krishna devotees’ Christmas Love Feast will be held again this year. For more than three decades, the event has helped those in need during the festive season. At the venue, next to the Planetarium, devotees and volunteers will be preparing with thousands of smiles and hundreds of hot meals to celebrate together with those who need support the most.
The Christmas Love Feast is the culmination of the year-long humanitarian work of the Krishna devotees to break through the grey walls of indifference and bring the importance of food distribution closer to people during the festive season which makes people more sensitive to others’ needs. Every year, the Hare Krishna Food for Life programme provides 1 million hot meals to the needy in Hungary, with 3,000 hot meals distributed every weekday nationwide.
The Christmas Charity Relief begins in Advent and continues after the holidays, even in January. During this time, the staff of the Food for Life Mission organise special food distribution campaigns from town to town, where they distribute a rich food parcel of ingredients along with hot meals, tea and bakery products. These parcels are particularly valuable for needy families and pensioners who have a household but are struggling to save as the holidays approach. In many cases, families use them to prepare Christmas dinners for their children and grandchildren, or to save for the lean period between the two holidays, when most aid agencies suspend their activities. It is also a common problem that people spend more on medicines and heating in the winter, leaving no money for basic food at the end of the month.
In recent years, the Christmas charity has provided a festive lunch and food parcels to more than 6,500 people in need. But this year the aim is even bigger: this year they will feed and brighten up the holidays in even more locations, for a total of 10 000 people in need. The support of the public is essential – even a small donation goes a long way to help the community pot:
- HUF 1,500 for a festive lunch for a person in need,
- 10 000 HUF can provide a family with a complete Christmas package.
Donate here: www.karitativ.hu
The Krishna devotees are not alone in their willingness to help, as every year more than a hundred volunteers, donors, celebrities, sportsmen and women and people with a heart to help join the festive action. For them, a celebration of love is complete when they act as little storm lanterns, bringing light into the desperate lives of others and lifting up those in need.
