By Matters India Reporter
Panaji: The people of Goa celebrated the nativity of Saint John the Baptist on June 24 leaping into wells and other water bodies in the western Indian state.
On the feast day, merrymakers wear a crown of leaves and flowers and jump into rivers and wells full of water from monsoon rains. This ritual, traditionally conducted in the rain, is said to symbolize Saint John´s “leap of joy” in his mother Elizabeth´s womb when the Blessed Mother visited her.
Revelers also wear cone-shaped hats made of leaves and flowers and go visiting, accompanied by drums. Some perform skits on decorated canoes.
The festival also is linked to a marriage custom in which the groom, wearing a crown of palm fronds and flowers, is made to jump into a well after a parade through the village. Symbolism aside, liberal consumption of liquor is a standard feature of the festival.
This year, every village devised its own way to celebrate the feast.
People wore headgears called ‘kopel.’ adorned with fresh flowers and sometimes even fruit and chanted ‘Viva Re Sao Joao’. Every village burst out with life as the monsoon rains brought a new energy to add flavor for this festival. Some villages invited others to join in their own celebrations.
In Saligao, the annual feast was celebrated for the third year in a row. In Saligao, the youth and villagers entertained crowds from 10:30 am onwards at Mae De Deus Church. The 19 small Christian communities came together to cultural programs and the food.
The program began with a prayer near the church followed by a brass band leading the procession to the venue. The program included folk dances, Konkani songs and music and culminate with piping hot Goan traditional food.
The Socorro Socio Art and Cultural Festival Association supported by Botanical Society of Goa celebrated jackfruit festival. The villagers made hundreds of colorful ‘kopels’ for the participants of the Sao Joao in Socorro. The festival began with a short prayer at the Socorro church and then a procession to mark the beginning of the fest at 3pm at Socorro Church Grounds.
Besides servings of fresh jackfruit, the jackfruit infused menu included dishes like Jaffee (jackfruit coffee), jackfruit biryani, jackfruit boiled seeds and also a display of jackfruit products from India and Vietnam. The eco-friendly festival had entertainment in the form of dance, Konkani music, comedy skits, Goan dances and live demonstrations about jackfruits.
For 14 years now, Thomas Fernandes from Pomburpa has been leading the village Sao Joao celebrations. The villagers respect the 70-year-old from Arao Ward in Pomburpa and followed his instructions as they jumped in ten wells in the ward with permission from the families.
Fernandes monitored each one and blew the whistle for youngsters to jump in the well and get out of the well in a synchronized pattern.
The celebrations began at 3pm when the villagers met at the First Cross near the St John the Baptist Well.
Newly married couples served an assortment of fresh fruits called ‘dhali’. The villagers had cleaned their wells by May and the Health Department in the village gave them medicinal powder to keep the wells clean.
“The celebrations are a part of the village and people from different communities come together as one to jump in the wells,” Fernandes explained.
Siolim Sao Joao Traditional Boat Festival was held for more than a quarter of a century. It drew travellers from different parts of Goa. This year, the festivity began at 3:30pm with the boat parade comprising boats making their way through the river to the creek opposite the St Anthony Church.
They crowned the cross with a flower ‘kopel’ and the participants got on to the stage to introduce themselves and sing a song.
Some Catholic priests in have criticized growing commercialization of the feast day.
Although the feast falls during the rainy season, the tourism department would connect large pipes to wells to create artificial rain for an open-air dance floor in Dona Paula, a tourist spot near Panaji, the state capital.
Priests bemoan that in recent years, the hotel lobby has abused the feast in the name of Catholic culture. They point out commercialization has brought various “unpalatable consequences” for society, sexual immorality among them.
Materialism has been substituted for spirituality, since “big money” is involved in such transformed feasts.
The Church has clarified that customs such as jumping into the river have nothing to do with Christianity.
Before the feast´s commercialization, people used to visit houses on the day, singing songs that befit the occasion. If there had been a death in the family, the visitors would pray for the deceased, and if there had been a marriage, they would indulge in merrymaking. This fostered unity, but also good neighborly relations, because the singing helped people forget differences.
In the past, revelers never took advantage of people, but now they demand money during the house visits and spend it on alcohol and drugs. Some villages where older generations exert a strong influence continue the old customs, but most people now prefer to spend the day drinking while others organize night parties and indulge in vulgar entertainment.