Festival of Plants and Flowers at the St Francis Xavier’s High School in Siolim

But 26 years -- that's how long the Festival of Plants and Flowers at the St Francis Xavier's High School in Siolim has been around.
The festival which first began back in the 1992 continues to this day and will be held once again this year on August 19 over three days as has been the tradition over the years.
Teacher Diogo Seby Pinto, who has been at the heart of the festival since the beginning has said that not only has the festival become part of the ‘ecosystem' of the SFX school over the years, the students take pride in participating and getting it done.
"Rather than being anything fancy, the core of the festival is that each students gets one plant from his garden at home which then makes up the exhibition part of the festival. The plants are then chosen and placed accordingly in the for display," Pinto, who has been the teacher in-charge of the festival said.
More than 1000 plants make it to the exhibition where they are grouped according to types which helps the students study it. The exhibition offers a wide range of plants from flowering, to ornamental to medicinal as well as herbs and spices.
More than the teachers it is the students who make this festival possible.
While the festival is brought about mainly through the groundwork done by the students of Green Heritage Eco Club, it wasn't always so. Initially, the festival was brought together by the Green Heritage Group which consisted among others by teachers from the school as well as prominent Siolcars like cartoonist Alexyz, Joel D'Souza and the Miguel Braganza, who was then with the Directorate of Agriculture, which along with the Department of Water Resources continues to support the festival till date.
Besides the exhibition, another highlight of the festival includes the inter school competitions with this year's edition focussing on the theme "Back to Roots". In tune with this, the poster competition for students this year is "roots for health" while another project competition will be on bringing back our lost biodiversity.
"We are losing our plant and animal life like that of fireflies, butterflies grasshoppers and plants like cassia tora. So we encourage students to come with suggestions on how this can be brought back as well as to create awareness on the issue," said Pinto while speaking to TGLife.
Besides this the festival includes commercial stalls of nurseries, organic vendors, monsoon vegetables cooking competitions, jumble sale and the like.
As the festival prepares to take on the next quarter of a century, they approach it with mixed feelings -- while on one hand agriculture is a fading profession while on the other hand, newer techniques like vertical farming, etc.
"We hope festivals like these encourage youngsters to take up agriculture," Pinto said expressing happiness that two ex students have decided to do their BSc in Agriculture in the State. This year the festival will be held from August 19 till August 21.