When Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth, the baby in her womb leaped with joy and both, Elizabeth and her baby were filled with the Holy Spirit. The church commemorates this leap of joy with a feast.
The feast of St. John the Baptist is more popularly known as San Joao (Portuguese). Traditionally men jump into the well or other water bodies. The people then gift fruits and liquors.
Food and Feni is another integral part of the Sao Joao feast. Newlywed brides carry baskets of fruit – Jackfruit, Pineapples and Bananas being the favourite. These gifts are presumably sent by the bride’s mother to her sons-in-law who so consented to let her daughter spend some time with her mother back home and now has to return to her husband. One very popular song sung at this feast is called, ‘Sasumai ponos dadla” which means, ‘my mother-in-law has sent me a jackfruit’.
It’s also common to find that Goan delicacy called ‘Patoleo’ in the bride’s basket. This is a sweet made with finely ground rice flour paste which is applied to fragrant leaves of turmeric. The two sides of the leaf are stuck together after a yummy mixture of freshly scraped coconut and jaggery is filled in the center – the whole leaf and the filling is then steam cooked in a large copper vessel.
Large crowds of people gather dressed in very colorful headgear called “Copel.” The crowns worn are made out of fresh flowers, fruit, and even vegetables.
Although there are many villages in Goa which celebrate this feast enthusiastically, one village which has been celebrating this feast for over 200 years now is the village of Siolim in North Goa. The colourful, theme-based floats are another memorable part of this feast.
Goans love to celebrate feasts with absolute joy. However the intention of the church to celebrate this feast was to ask the faithful to hear the call of St. John the Baptist of changing one’s sinful nature.
Today the feast gives us lots of temporal joyful leaps filled with heady spirits, but we fail to jump in Joy to change our life and receive the Holy Spirit for everlasting leap of joy.
Neville Fernandes