Dedicated to St John the Baptist and celebrated on June 24, the Sao Joao festival has retained its traditional flavour in Goa and is celebrated with much fervour. The villagers of Saligao have taken the initiative to start a new festival - ‘Vangod’ (togetherness) on June 26. “Beginning from this year we intent to celebrate Sao Joao in a different manner,” shares Hubert D’Costa, president of youth group at Mae de Deus Church in Saligao who has taken the lead to assimilate the village youth for this unique feast that will begin on Sunday at 11 am and stretch up to 3 pm with free lunch to all the visitors.
The villagers of Saligao were impressed with the success of the various low cost, grass root festivals celebrated at Socorro and Hubert spells out their plans to initiate this new festival. Around 80 youth of Saligao will be performing the katti dance (traditional Goan dance with coconut shells) and the audience, who will be handed over a pair of kattis each, will accompany the beat by striking the shells rhythmically.
There would be a series of programmes beginning from 11 am in the morning in this low cost festival where there would be participation but no competitions, hence no prizes too. “The feast is of the people, by the people and for the people and hence there would be no chief guest here. Those who visit are our guests and each of them would be served free lunch,” says Hubert who is expecting at least 1000 plus people from all communities from 10 wards in Saligao. “We have invited everybody to participate. Even a group of migrants will be performing with us,” he quips.
It is a get-together of locals who would display culture, sports talents, cooking styles, folk music and dance along with a social message, that of preserving nature and environment. “The folk music and folk dances like mando, dulpod, dekhni etc would be the centre of attraction. A band from the village would perform live. “This is art for the sake of art and we will be distributing and sharing pure joy,” says Hubert.
Endorsing Hubert’s statement, Fr Mathew Rodrigues, parish priest of Saligao church, says, “This will be an eco-friendly feast and the people of Saligao would celebrate it in a more meaningful way. Sao Joao is linked with water. But in today’s context it is not fair to waste or pollute water. We have to respect Mother Nature and preserve what she gives us. From this year onwards, we will see that there would be no wastage of water and no artificial rain dance if it doesn’t rain. Nobody would jump into the wells. We are offering a carry home message, that water is gold and so don’t waste it. Save water, grow trees, is what we want to preach.”
Mentioning that around 3000 Catholics and an equal number of Hindus live in Saligao, Fr Mathew also calls Vangod an effort to display unity. People from all walks of life are invited to participate in the feast which will have entertainment programme followed by free community lunch. The village people will be cooking and serving kadi, kismur, salad, fish, pickle, prawns for all those who attend. An added attraction is there would be live demo of cooking traditional dishes of Goa like mango jam, jackfruit jam, chone, pude, pej “ which will be served free in an eco-friendly way, in a katti (coconut shell).
“We wish to teach the youth our traditional way of cooking feast meals,” says Marius Fernandes, a cultural activist who has been instrumental in initiating such innovative ways of celebrating life in the villages of Divar, Chorao, Pomburpa, Socorro, Varca and now in Saligao. “The only plastic at the venue is the roof covering on the temporary shades built here. We are building 15 huts of bamboo sticks and coconut leaves as shades in case it rains and a part of the feast celebrations is devoted to planting local fruit trees like mangoes and jackfruits, the saplings of which would be distributed free,” briefs Marius.
