The village of Socorro will exude the
fragrance of ripe
jackfruit on June 24, 2017 as the Socorro Socio Art and Cultural Festival
Association celebrates the fourth edition of ‘Ponsachem Fest’
(Jackfruit Festival) in tandem with the Sao Joao
celebrations across the state. The festival will begin with a short prayer at
the Socorro church and then a procession to mark the beginning of the ‘Ponsachem
Fest’ at 3pm.
Marius Fernandes, the brain behind the festival, informs
that the festival will be completely eco-friendly and children and youngsters
of the village have already been taught to make ‘kopels’ using locally available flowers. “We had a workshop for the students of Our
Lady of Socorro Primary School, Socorro, teaching them to make ‘kopels’ for themselves and those visiting the festival. The festival will have various talks: Roshan Nazareth will be talking about sicknesses in the monsoons, Miguel Bragazna will
talk about the jackfruit as the fruit of the future and Alexyz will throw light on the
conservation of frog species in the rains,” he informs.
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Another
important aspect of the festival will be the Jaffee – decaffeinated jackfruit
coffee made from roasted jackfruit seeds. Though it is known in Chikmagalur,
Karnataka, this jackfruit coffee is new to Goa and the villagers are keen on
making the coffee. Besides this, delicacies like boiled jackfruit seeds and
fresh jackfruit will be served. Newly-married couples of the Catholic and Hindu
community will also be felicitated.
Miguel
Braganza, Secretary, Botanical Society of Goa, will be giving a talk
on the jackfruit. “United Nations has declared the jackfruit as the climate
smart fruit crop in the future as it can withstand climate change. The fruit
can be consumed even as fodder for goats and cattle and it has multiple uses.
Also, jackfruit seed flour is gluten free and can be added while cooking food.
An interesting aspect of this festival is that you get to learn so much about the
fruit. Last year, I learnt that the potter community in Socorro used to bury
jackfruit seeds in the clay that they used for pottery. The seeds remained
intact without rotting or germinating due to lack of oxygen. Earlier, they used to store these seeds for over a year,” says
Miguel, hoping that this year too another aspect of jackfruit will come to
light.
In Saligao,
the colours of togetherness and harmony will be seen as
villagers are prepping for the biggest celebration of the year, ‘Vangodd de
Saligao’. Parish priest Fr Mateus Rodrigues of Mae De Deus C, Saligao,
the PPC, the youth and villagers of Saligao are all set to entertain the crowds
on June 25, 2017 from 11am onwards.
Fr Mateus
Rodrigues says, “‘Vangodd’ means bringing
together the village on a single day that will be full
of various
activities. We started preparations almost a month ago with all the 19 small
Christian communities or ‘somudai’ coming
together and organising cultural programs and preparing food. We had a meeting
with the parish council followed by a ‘somudai’ meeting.
Each ‘somudai’ has a leader and
they report the progress to me.”
The
eco-friendly festival follows the same criteria as the ‘Ponsachem
Fest’ and will have no chief guest, no competitions, no plastic
and no alcohol. The programme will begin
at 11am as the villagers will march to the church compound, followed
by the cultural programme with songs, dances and sumptuous traditional food.
“Each ‘somudai’ has been
preparing traditional dishes like ‘xitt’, ‘samarachi
kodi’, ‘kismur’ and local
vegetables for the grand lunch on that day. They are
also practising traditional dances and songs to be performed on that day. Workers who have migrated
from other parts of the country and are living Saligao will be performing their traditional
dance. There will be a ‘kopel’ making
workshop for children and a workshop on making ‘sannas’ and Goan
delicacies for adults on the day itself,” adds Fr Mateus.
