When you enter
the village of Socorro on Easter Sunday, don’t be surprised if you see people
walking with a crown of cashew leaves and carrying ‘kottios’. They are heading
for the first edition of ‘Cajuchem Fest’ celebrated on April 5, 2015 at 5pm at
the Socorro grounds.
“We have an
annual monsoon festival that is held in August, ‘Patolleanchem Fest’ so we
decided to host a similar summer festival, and as cashew is the first
indication of summer in Goa, we decided to celebrate ‘Cajuchem Fest’. There is
much more to cashews besides just feni and urak and we want to highlight the
various uses of cashews in Goan culture,” says Marius Fernandes, who unites the
villagers of Socorro under the Socorro Socio-Art & Cultural Association,
Porvorim. The association promotes Goan traditions, culture and heritage in the
village of Socorro/Porvorim.
The beauty of
‘Cajuchem Fest’ is that it will start at 5pm sharp, because they believe that
everyone is a special guest and hence no chief guest is invited. The mantra of
this festival is ‘No chief guest, no prizes, no sponsors, no plastic and no
alcohol’. The festival will feature ‘bebemiani’ a game where ‘bebe’, raw
cashews are lined in a row and a fat ‘botto’ cashew is used to aim at the row.
The cashews that fall on the left hand side are won by the striker.
The seven wards
of Socorro will put up stalls serving food and desserts made incorporating
cashews, including cashew pulao, biya bhaji, kheer and lassi. ‘Nero,’ cashew
juice will be served in coconut shells. The entertainment will include songs
composed as a tribute to the juicy fruit. The festival will also include talks
by Minguel Braganza, Dr AR Desai, Senior Scientist, ICAR and Umesh Shirodkar of
Bicholim who makes ten flavours of Urak using seasonal fruits. Hybrid and local
cashew saplings will be on display and distributed to cashew farmers.
“Fr Santana Carvalho is the backbone of this
festival as it empowers women and children to participate. The festival will
showcase the different uses of cashews like using ‘deek’, the resin from the
seeds for beams of the house or for boats, making feni and urak by crushing
cashew fruits and distilling it with the correct process,” says Marius of the
intereactive festival.
