Adventure with Andysam: Sao joao festival Gos

The Sao Joao Festival

GOA

On June 24, if you see a Goan with an orchard growing out of his scalp, do not smirk. It is the Sao Joao festival and that orchard is his crown.!!!

On Sunday the 24th June 2018 while I was just relaxing in the terrace of our home after I returned from my Sunday Worship service in Parra at Assagao a very beautiful picturesque serene village nestled in the cool green bowl of mountains near Mapusa town I suddenly received a call coupled with an invitation from one of Photowalk and Birding Friend Ms.Cleusa Naik and her very energetic and enterprising Husband also a hard core birder .Yes this call transformed my lazy Sunday evening into a very glamorous stunning exciting joyful evening which I would never forget it in a hurry.

Yes you guessed it right I was invited to attend THE SAO JOAO FESTIVAL.

The Sao Joao festival, a part of Goa's Portuguese heritage, takes place at the beginning of monsoon season. This holiday has a loud celebration in North Goa, but it's not that common in the southern part of the state. It is popular mostly among young people in Goan villages. During this day young people wear crowns made of fruits and leaves called 'kopels.' They also jump into a well just for fun

The Sao Joao Festival is celebrated in Goa most pompously and is dedicated to St. John the Baptist which is celebrated on 24th June every year. This occasion marks the celebration by the local youth in the villages of Goa who normally get drunk and jump into wells according to the existing tradition of Sao Joao festival.

It is an tradition exists even today and whoever owns a well and has a girl who is newly married exchanges pleasantries and food items to their in-laws as is the custom in every Goan village

It is a real treat to watch the local youth with crowns of leaves and varied fruits on their heads going out in processions carrying Goan liquor along with them and jumping into wells to have fun. Later, they enjoy a lavish feast of meat and seafood marking the end of the festival. The rainy season is a perfect foil for the Sao Joao festival as most of the people enjoy it more when its raining heavily.

And I thought crowns were only about big fat diamonds and rubies sewn into silk and brocade. Or the more mournful crown of thorns that Jesus wore. Then,my belief and notion of a Diamond all changed . By a well in Goa’s Campal neighbourhood. There stood a woman. With grapes in her crown. A few guavas. A banana. Two green bell peppers. She, no princess. That day not her coronation.

I just stood flabercasted befuddled and baffled and mesmorised at all that merry-jumpingI into the Biblical leap of joy. The well-jumpers were not just merrymakers they were mimicking a saint. As the story goes, St John, the Baptist, leapt in joy inside his mother Elizabeth’s womb when Virgin Mary came visiting. St. John later baptised Jesus in the river Jordan. The jumping into wells is symbolic of St John’s still-in-the-womb leap of joy.

For long, San Joao has been associated with the tradition of newlywed brides carrying a basket of fruits, specially jackfruit, bananas and pineapples. The gifts are sent by the bride’s mother for her son-in-law.

One of the most popular songs of Sao Joao is Sasumai ponos dadla (my mother-in-law has sent me a jackfruit). However, the festival is never compete without pataleo, a traditional sweetmeat made of ground rice mixed with palm jaggery, grated coconut and cardamom powder; the mixture wrapped in turmeric leaf and steamed.

Celebrations start early in the morning in the village of Benaulim (South Goa), which has the church of Saint John the Baptist. It starts with a morning mass that include prayers given out by people from surrounding villages.