Heritage Day is a public holiday in South Africa and is celebrated on the 24^{th of} September every year. It is a day on which South Africans across the spectrum are encouraged to celebrate their cultural heritage and the diversity of their beliefs and traditions, in the wider context of a nation that belongs to all its people. It is this diverse cultural heritage that makes South Africa a ‘rainbow nation’.

Heritage Day has become a perfect day of choice for vocations exhibitions; an annual event organised by religious congregations within the province of KwaZulu Natal. This year marked the third year of vocations exhibition since its launch in 2009. Unlike the previous years, this year’s vocations exhibition did not only encourage the celebration of the South African heritage but also highlighted the Christian culture. The Christian culture gives us a sense of belonging irrespective of our differences in nationality, religious order, ethnic background, race, etc. As a result we had a guest speaker Fr Martin Badernhost OP who gave a talk on Christian culture.

Fr Martin highlighted the fact that in this moment in time, there is no such thing as a pure culture. With the world becoming a global village, we have inherited and added new habits into our original culture. As a result, the Zulu culture has within it some aspects of Chinese, American, Afrikaans culture and so are all other cultures. He also noted that the man whom we are following (Jesus) lived 2000 years ago in a different time and culture and that the Jesus of today is a Jesus in a different culture.

He noted that Jesus would probably be a Zulu among the Zulus, a Chinese among the Chinese and an Indian among the Indians. He thus called us to own the child Jesus, to nurture Him within our culture, and then to present/give him out to the world and to the people whom we encounter in our day to day life.

Fr Martin challenged us to open our doors to young people, to dine with them, to play with them and to be friendly to them in order for them to be conversant with our religious culture pointing out that if we continue being absent in their lives and distant from them, they may never feel attracted to join our Christian/religious culture.

After the talk, there was a moment of exhibition; young people we taken from table to table where different congregations had displayed their items for animation. At the tables, members of various congregations shared their lives with the youth and answered their questions. This year recorded the highest number of participants from the women congregations but the lowest attendance on the side of the youth. After the exhibition, there was a time for lunch before closing the day with the celebration of the Eucharistic.

P/S:- Merrivale Community is part of the team that organised the function.