The parishioners of Cavelossim celebrated the feast of their Patron the Holy Cross with much fervour and pomp, on Wednesday. The novenas are held 10 days before the feast.
After the novenas end, the church is closed and the parishioners gather to participate in the Luminaries, which means lights or illumination. There are ten Luminaries, which represent a particular vangod or early settlers of the village. Each luminary represents one vangood during the 10-day novena as are ten vangoods in the Communidade of Cavelossim.
The Luminaries start at the stroke of the 8 pm bell. The children arrange themselves in two rows, each is given one-half of a coconut, oil is poured into it and a cloth wick is inserted and lit. The elders sing a ladahina in Latin, and the children slowly roast the coconut kernel, which they relish later. After the litany is over the sky is lit up with fireworks.
What is much loved is the hot air balloon. The balloon is made of multicoloured paper, a bamboo ring at the base and a cloth wick soaked in kerosene. This hot air balloon is lit, slowly rises in the night sky going over great distances and even reaching other villages. Local villagers call the hot air balloon vapour. No one knows for sure, when this tradition started, locals state that the tradition is passed on for over a hundred years by the village elders.
