The aroma of freshly baked bread will waft through the air with extra vigour as the village of Socorro celebrates ‘Poderanchem Fest’. The festival is being celebrated with an Eucharistic celebration for the bakers’ community followed by a procession led by brass bands around the church with bakers dressed according to the different eras. This interesting theme will have the bakers representing the oldest era with baskets on their head, dressed in traditional attire and carrying a stick with chimes to notify their customers.
The next generation of poders will be shown on cycles with the baskets attached to the brackets, honking away their customised horns. The next to follow will ride motorcycles and soon after will be the bakers of today, driving their cars full of a variety of breads and baked goodies. This celebration is being organised by the Socorro Socio-Art and Cultural Association in association with the All Goa Association of Bakers and Dalima’s Institute of Bakery and Cookery. Peter Dalima has been training the women and youngsters of Socorro to bake decorative breads.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can help support our journalism by adding OHeraldo as a preferred source.
“Since International Bread Day is on October 16, we thought of celebrating it this weekend, thereby making it convenient for people to attend. The aim of this festival is to bring out certain facts about this profession. We’ve noticed that hardly any studies have been conducted to gauge the effects this trade has on the health of those practising it, whether there is security in this profession, whether they are working in hygienic conditions or what can be done to develop this trade further. To help bakers, we are also bringing in speakers and stakeholders from the industry to share their knowledge on the Goan bread,” says Marius Fernandes of the Socorro Socio-Art and Cultural Association.
To celebrate the original Goan bread, the seven wards of Socorro are setting up stalls dedicated to seven types of bread including pao, undo, katre, poyi, pokshe and kakon. According to Mario, they have researched about which bread goes well with which dish. “Choriz goes well with pao, poyi with sorpotel, ros omlette with undo, kakon with tea and katre with meat based dishes,” says Marius. Besides these breads, Goan bakers also prepare Fornacho Pao which is a square shaped bread, and Pokshe, a small bread with a crusty top.
Agapito Menezes, President of the All Goa Association of Bakers which has a strength of over 1,000 members, says, “This is the fifth year we will be celebrating the festival; celebrations will be on an even grander scale this time around. For the last four years, we have been celebrating the feast in Margao with a get together. This year, there is an exhibition of decorative breads, workshops and demonstrations to take the bread to the people.”
A special website, Poder.in, is also being launched at the festival. Developed by Gautam Faterpekar, the website, dedicated to bakers, will provide all their information and give them a unified platform online. “We are trying to get the poder community together and as everybody is talking about going online, we thought of showcasing the baking skills of the poder. It will be an interactive website, where they can communicate and even advertise,” says Gautam from Margao.
With 600 people volunteering for the festival, there are 13 groups performing songs and skits for entertainment. Green Essentials is putting up a stall at the festival showcasing organic bread, while everyone can get a treat of renowned cartoonist Alexyz’ artistic wonders with his memento stall. The festivity will continue till 8pm at the Socorro Church grounds.
