It is ‘Viva Sao Joao!' all over in Goa on June 24
Every June, the Sao Joao festival is celebrated with grandeur and gaiety in Goa. The festival is dedicated to St. John the Baptist. Sao Joao is a Portuguese word that translates to St. John. The festival honours St. John the Baptist, as the one who baptised Jesus. Every year, June 24 is celebrated with great joy and reverence, especially by Goa's Catholic community. The celebrations include villagers jumping into wells, streams and ponds. This jump is to signify the joy that St. John felt when Jesus Christ was born.
The boys are found merrily jumping into the water to commemorate the leap of joy, which St John is said to have taken in the womb of his mother, St Elizabeth when Virgin Mary visited her. The festival also includes playing the traditional ghumot (percussion instrument). It also sees revellers wearing the kopel (the crown of fruits, flowers and leaves), parading in villages and often hopping from one place to another as they chant, 'Sao Joao! Viva Sao Joao'.
Goan music and dance are an essential part of the Sao Joao celebrations. Traditional Konkani songs fill the air, and groups perform lively folk dances. Of course, no Goan festival is complete without feni and so it is with these festivities. The beats of drums, violins, and ghumots set the rhythm as people break into a spontaneous dance, creating an electrifying atmosphere. Local bands and musicians take centre stage, entertaining crowds with energetic performances and classic Goan melodies. With music, dance, and feni flowing freely, Sao Joao transforms into a grand carnival of joy and unity. Families prepare a delicious feast featuring traditional dishes like sorpotel, sannas, bebinca and fish curry-rice.
Sharing food with family, friends and visitors is a big part of the celebration. Homes are filled with the aroma of freshly cooked seafood, rich spices, and coconut-based curries, making it a delightful affair. Many communities organise festive buffets and set up food stalls, allowing visitors to savour the authentic Goan flavours. Eating together fosters a sense of togetherness and hospitality, making Sao Joao as much about food as it is about festivity. Incidentally, Sao Joao is an occasion for the family and the villagers to get to know husbands of their newly wed daughters a little better.
Jubel D'Cruz,Mumbai
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Hans India
3 hours ago
- Hans India
It is ‘Viva Sao Joao!' all over in Goa on June 24
Every June, the Sao Joao festival is celebrated with grandeur and gaiety in Goa. The festival is dedicated to St. John the Baptist. Sao Joao is a Portuguese word that translates to St. John. The festival honours St. John the Baptist, as the one who baptised Jesus. Every year, June 24 is celebrated with great joy and reverence, especially by Goa's Catholic community. The celebrations include villagers jumping into wells, streams and ponds. This jump is to signify the joy that St. John felt when Jesus Christ was born. The boys are found merrily jumping into the water to commemorate the leap of joy, which St John is said to have taken in the womb of his mother, St Elizabeth when Virgin Mary visited her. The festival also includes playing the traditional ghumot (percussion instrument). It also sees revellers wearing the kopel (the crown of fruits, flowers and leaves), parading in villages and often hopping from one place to another as they chant, 'Sao Joao! Viva Sao Joao'. Goan music and dance are an essential part of the Sao Joao celebrations. Traditional Konkani songs fill the air, and groups perform lively folk dances. Of course, no Goan festival is complete without feni and so it is with these festivities. The beats of drums, violins, and ghumots set the rhythm as people break into a spontaneous dance, creating an electrifying atmosphere. Local bands and musicians take centre stage, entertaining crowds with energetic performances and classic Goan melodies. With music, dance, and feni flowing freely, Sao Joao transforms into a grand carnival of joy and unity. Families prepare a delicious feast featuring traditional dishes like sorpotel, sannas, bebinca and fish curry-rice. Sharing food with family, friends and visitors is a big part of the celebration. Homes are filled with the aroma of freshly cooked seafood, rich spices, and coconut-based curries, making it a delightful affair. Many communities organise festive buffets and set up food stalls, allowing visitors to savour the authentic Goan flavours. Eating together fosters a sense of togetherness and hospitality, making Sao Joao as much about food as it is about festivity. Incidentally, Sao Joao is an occasion for the family and the villagers to get to know husbands of their newly wed daughters a little better. Jubel D'Cruz,Mumbai
Hindustan Times
a day ago
- Hindustan Times
Review: Museum of Goa by Kunal Ray and Subodh Kerkar
Kunal Ray's Museum of Goa will serve as an eye-opener for readers who think of museums as stuffy places with musty old cabinets and ancient artefacts bearing no relation to their present life. A biography of an institution called Museum of Goa (MOG) — constructed over 18 months on a plot of land at the Pilerne Industrial Estate in Saligao — and of its founding director, Subodh Kerkar, this book shows that museums can also be 'workshops for ideas'; that they can be vibrant and participatory spaces that invite visitors to be co-creators of meaning and not just consumers of a collection. From Souza to Xacuti: At the Museum of Goa (Courtesy MOG) Interestingly, MOG is not just an acronym. The word means 'love' in Konkani, which is the official language of Goa and is widely spoken there. This semantic coincidence is not only charming but quite apt since the museum is a labour of love. Trips to museums in France, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States made Kerkar realise that his home state had no contemporary art museums. So, he built MOG. 64pp, ₹215; Ektara Trust Kerkar's big career switch from medicine to art, emphasized by Ray in his narrative, speaks volumes about the former's passion for art. A decade after setting up a hospital near Calangute beach, and serving fisherfolk as a physician, he wrapped up his medical practice to focus on his art, which spans a wide range from drawings, paintings and photographs to installations, sculptures, performances, video art, and multimedia works. Without belabouring the point, the book nudges readers towards the realization that medicine and art have something in common — a capacity to heal. This book is not a critical appraisal of Kerkar's body of work; it is meant to introduce children to his art. One of the works discussed here is a multimedia art installation titled 'Gandhi's Heart Sounds'. Ray writes, 'We see Gandhi's bust and hear his heartbeats. It is like having him among us, with us.' Instead of using archival footage or photographs, Kerkar decided to go ahead with an unusual idea. Ray adds, '…the artist converted Gandhi's electrocardiogram to the sound of his beating heart.' This would arouse the curiosity of children reading the book, and hopefully also give art teachers some tips on how to make their classes more interesting with experimental projects that are fun for children. Subodh Kerker (Courtesy the subject) During a conversation with the author, Kerkar remarked that the best part of being at MOG is 'meeting children every day'. The Children's Art Studio at the institution was conceptualized by Kerkar's daughter Sharada who now runs it. 'Last time I met Subodh, he showed me the dinosaurs he had drawn with a bunch of kids on loose sheets of paper that day. When I met him today, those dinosaurs had happily wandered to a stage curtain,' writes Ray. The book would not have been as much of a visual treat without the illustrations by Kerkar, who also holds the Mario Miranda Chair for Arts at Goa University. It opens with a visual of a wide-eyed child jumping onto a large ice cream cone and closes with one of Subodh high-fiving a bunch of excited children. The artist's work is rooted in Goan history and culture, and this book presents his desire to celebrate these aspects of his native land. Ray points out the recurrence of coconut trees in Kerkar's work and writes of his love of 'drawing on logs of wood brought ashore by the sea'. Photographs of fisherfolk and sculptures using oars and boats are part of his oeuvre. The museum itself is part of his larger artistic vision and has a café that serves traditional Goan snacks and coolers. Author Kunal Ray (Courtesy the subject) Readers curious about the quieter aspects of Goa are likely to enjoy this book. It might also strike a chord with those who love walking on the beach by themselves or with loved ones. One beautiful illustration features a little Subodh holding his father and mentor Chandrakant's hand as they stand on the beach and look out at the horizon. 'Growing up, Subodh remembers going on a long walk along the beach with his father daily. Those walks brought him closer to his father and to the world of art,' writes Ray. An important fact that this book mentions in passing but is worth highlighting is that Kerkar did not study art formally but learnt from visiting museums. With museums in India gradually waking up to the significance of outreach programmes targeted at schools, Museum of Goa is a reminder that museums must not only inform and educate but also encourage curiosity and play. That can happen only when children are allowed to ask questions instead of being told, like earlier generations of Indian students, to shut up and walk in single file. Chintan Girish Modi is a journalist, educator and literary critic. He can be reached @chintanwriting on Instagram and X.
Time of India
a day ago
- Time of India
Mumbai takes a leap of faith: Festival of San Joao makes a splash in city
Mumbai: The star of a Catholic saint has been on the rise in Mumbai, reaching its zenith every year on June 24, the day of his feast, San Joao. St John the Baptist (San Joao in Portuguese) was the cousin of Jesus, who baptised him in the River Jordan and initiated him into his ministry. Over the years, the feast in Mumbai has evolved from a neighbourhood community festival to a citywide carnival, with events hosted from Marine Lines to Manori, open to people within and outside the Catholic fold. Its widespread appeal is due in part to the unique customs and revelry that frame it, celebrating not just the saint, but nature, the rains, and, curiously, newlyweds alongside. New son-in-law day In East Indian and Goan tradition, a married couple visits the bride's home, where the son-in-law is feted and fed. In Uttan, fireworks welcome a couple into the village a day prior to the feast, which is also called 'Jaavaycha Sann' or New Son-in-Law Day. "When they arrive, the groom unearths the ceremonial coin buried under the 'arka' for good luck," says Mogan Rodrigues, co-founder of Sangath, a Bombay East Indian cultural platform. "On the day of the feast itself, the couple attends mass in the morning. In the evening, they are led by an East Indian brass band in a lively procession to the village well, where their feet are washed by women from the family or the community. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 임플란트 29만원 이벤트 임플란트 더 알아보기 Undo Singing and dancing, everyone returns to the bride's house for light refreshments, while later, a more elaborate dinner of pork Indyal, stuffed chicken and mutton stew is laid out for the son-in-law," he says. Gleason Barretto, a coordinator with the Mobai Gaothan Panchayat (MGP), believes East Indians wash the couple's feet as a sign of respect and acceptance for the new son-in-law, and says the sacrament of baptism, signifying ritual cleansing and a new beginning, may have been extrapolated to the matrimonial context. Goans don't practise this custom. Water works Water is central to San Joao celebrations, recalling St John's baptism. In Mumbai and Thane, wells, ponds and tanks stand in for the river, with community members leaping into wells. If a waterbody isn't available, tankers are summoned and sprinklers set up. There was a time, though, when the mechanics were more rudimentary. "We'd empty buckets of water from the terrace or hose each other with pipes," laughs Wency Pereira of Goan Outreach Association. "Goans who had no access to wells celebrated San Joao in building compounds. But as the numbers grew, we needed a larger venue." In places where wells vanished, pools both tiled and inflatable, became the new proxy. "We rented a BMC pool one year," recalls Fleur D'Souza, former history department head at St Xavier's College and a parishioner of St John the Baptist Church, Thane. "Festivities began a whole week prior with tournaments and games. It was the first big celebration after Easter." New currents In the past decade, San Joao celebrations have moved beyond homes and gaothans into gymkhanas, clubs and resorts, especially in Gorai and Manori. "It wasn't this popular a couple of years ago," notes Pereira. "We had close to 1,000 people at our event last year." The festival is now marketed as a semi-carnival with live bands, competitions, rain dances and pool plunges. Traditions are observed, but with a twist. At Felix Sequeira's San Joao party in Gorai, prayers led by a priest are followed by the ceremonial plunge—led by brides. While most events are promoted via WhatsApp and word of mouth, some, like Mumbai Meri Jaan Foundation, use ticketing platforms. "Last year, we had 1,700 people; this year we expect 2,500," says Nicholas D'Souza, manager at the foundation. Purists though believe such events dilute tradition. For organisations like MGP, the sanctity of the festival is rooted in community and custom. Its revivalist manifesto, San Jao Cha Sann!, encourages celebration at local water bodies and restoration of neglected wells. "Reviving cultural traditions around water bodies can help revive the waterbodies themselves," says Alphi D'Souza, MGP's global head. Rising to the task, the East Indian community in Vakola will organise its first San Joao at the gaothan well on June 24.
