Harvest and snow

The Our Lady ofSnows Church in Raia is decked up and stands majestically, all lit up for theevening novena. The feast of the Patroness, Our Lady of Snows, is celebrated onAugust 5 and is locally knows as KonsachemFest – harvest festival. The day marks the beginning of the harvest season.

The Raia Churchwas built to cater to the religious needs of the people outside the fort ofRachol.  “The Church was built some 100years after the Our Lady of Snows Church in Rachol - the first church inSalcete,” says Fr Nascimento Mascarenhas of the Holy Spirit Church in Margão. The two churches are about three kilometres apart.

On August 5,before the beginning of a grand feast mass, a procession of confraternities (thegroup of lay people that manage church activities and feasts) and faithful, ledby the priest, goes out to a paddy field that is ripe for harvesting. The maleconfraternities wear a white vestment with a satin cape known as Opa e Murça. The fieldbelongs to the church and the land is used only for cultivation for the Konsachem Fest and this is where thepriest blesses the crop and cuts the stalks of paddy with a sickle that has agolden handle. Unlike paddy fields that are normally cultivated when themonsoon starts in June, the cultivation of this small land is started in Aprilso the crop gets ready in August. This particular paddy field is called Saibinichi Conngi.

After harvestingthe field, a sheaf of paddy is sent to Our Lady of Snows Church in Rachol. Anothersheaf is sent to the Kamaxi temple in Shiroda across the Zuari River. “It isbelieved that the statue of Our Lady of Snows was once a deity of a temple. Asheaf of paddy used to be sent to the judge in the Margão Court,” says Anastacia Fernandes, a local who attends mass everyday. The rest of the harvested paddy is distributed to the faithful and is usedto make Godshem – a sweet dish madeof rice and jaggery. Sanna and Sorpatel complete the celebration of theharvest.