This is possibly the best time of this year. A year everyone hopes will end quickly. Christmas is that time of the year when families and friends meet and renew and refresh friendships. It is also the time for communities to come together and involve themselves in activities that symbolize the spirit of Christmas. Designing and building cribs is an activity that brings people together. The Christmas crib after all represents how Jesus was born. It represents infant Jesus, his mother, Mary, and her husband, Joseph. There are various other characters that are part of the Christmas crib. It is a space where great imagination is displayed and people spend time coming up with interesting designs. Cribs are put up in front of houses as well as by the ward. Competitions are held every year to select the most imaginative crib. Winning is a matter of great esteem. This year, however, much will be different. In many places, the cribs are not being put up. One can thank the virus for that. However, in Cansaulim, cribs are being put up and many are being sponsored by politicians. In Davorlim too cribs are being put up. However, in other places, the situation on the ground has forced people to come to terms with it. In Chandor too everything has been reduced. This is a far cry from when students studying catechism would help out in the making of the cribs. Gozago Rebello from Mungul on the Margao to Colva road near the lake said they were not doing anything this year. He said “We have a crib every year. This was something we did every year. This year we decided against it because a lot of people would come over and we would not be able to maintain social distancing. We want to avoid having any problems in the future.” Bernard Sequeira a teacher staying in Caranzalem said he was making two cribs. He said “This year there is no competition. We used to make a huge crib. This year we are uploading on Youtube so that people can seek the blessings, this is not to say we are going to discourage people from people coming over to the crib.” He said the entire exercise would take him and his group of volunteers a fortnight to prepare. He said his brother who was in the event management business used to make a moving crib but now due to pressure of work stuck making a stationary crib. The entire exercise he said would cost him around Rs 8000, some of which came from his pocket and the rest from the church. This he said was a tradition he was proud to be a part of from the time he was a child. At the Mother of the Poor Church at Nuvem which used to usually prepare a big crib that visitors could walkthrough has been downsized drastically and it will be only a visual crib that anybody can watch by standing in one place.
Similarly at the Our Lady of Bethlehem Church in Chandor the crib is significantly smaller in size and is prepared by the Catechism students of the Youth Association that used to prepare it earlier. Elsewhere the youngsters have come forward to prepare the huge cribs they usually prepare. In Cansaulim where such cribs were a big attraction work on two of the largest cribs has already started and the others are expected to come up shortly. However, if at all the other cribs do not come up it will not be so much because of the pandemic but because politicians are not willing to sponsor them since no elections were in the near future. A local from Cansaulim pointed out that earlier even the roads were decorated with lights and stars. “This may not happen this year as the youngsters used to collect money from Non-Resident Goans for these road decorations but as most Goans are at home due to the pandemic they may not be able to dole out the money,” he said. Davorlim & Navelim try to keep the tradition going
Closer to Margao at Davorlim Dicarpale the pandemic has not affected the local youngsters who are seen gloriously preparing the big cribs that they used to do. However, they do admit that they have to downsize the expenditure to keep up with the present times. At Navelim the Help & Help Charitable Trust has put up the nativity scene with huge gigantic cutouts of Joseph, Mother Many, and infant Jesus in a crib. This scene which is prepared opposite the Perpetual Succor Convent where the Navelim feast is held is open to public from 6 pm to 10 pm till 6th January 2021. Various groups will present Carols or enact some skits on the small stage put up in front of the nativity scene and the gathered crowd will also be entertained by singers and musical bands. Help & Help Charitable Trust since its inception in 2003 has interacted with around 150 institutions all over Goa dealing with orphans, aged people, sick persons, mentally and physically challenged persons and also the destitute, slum dwellers and prisoners.
