Sadbhav Mahotsav, a unique community festival to appreciate the sower, the seed, the soil and the sustainer, was organised by the Society of Pilar at the Pilar Pilgrim Centre on October 1.
The festival brought together over 200 people of different faiths, especially farmers and students living in the seven village panchayats of St Andre constituency.
In the morning, around 150 students from nine high schools of St Lawrence High School (Agacaim), Immaculate Heart of Mary High school (Goa Velha), Fairyland High School (Batim), Popular High School (Goa Velha), St Andrew High school (Goa Velha), Dayanand Arya High school (Neura), Azmane High school (Neura), Fr Agnel High School (Pilar), Fr Agnel Central School (Pilar), Fr Agnel Higher Secondary and Fr Agnel College (Pilar) participated in various activities.
The festival infused in students the universal values of harmony, peace, brotherhood, especially the urgency of protecting and caring for mother earth.
The high school students had a painting activity titled ‘Let’s paint the World’. An activity-based session on the theme ‘learning to live in harmony’ was facilitated by Elaine Coelho, Govinda Phadte and Meherunissa Shafi, BEd students from Nirmala Institute of Education, Panaji.
The students also had an experiential walk into the farm area and horticulture garden located on the Pilar Hillock. Fr Mario Rebelo and Fr Andrew Joseph led the students in this hands-on learning activity.
Some farmers and villagers came and cooked food for lunch at the festival. Fr. Lawrence Fernandes, Director of the Pilar Pilgrim Centre, applauded their presence to celebrate togetherness as one human family. Fr Russel Fernandes led everyone to a prayer of thanksgiving and blessing before the lunch.
After lunch, participants had the opportunity to interact with officials of the Directorate of Agriculture, who had set up a booth to disseminate information on agriculture and various agricultural schemes.
