Monti Fest – the festival that strengthens the institution of family

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ENARADA NEWS AND WEBCAST

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ENARADA, Mangalore, September 8, 2013:

By C D Souza

After almost three months of heavy rains it is time to bask in the glory of festival season.

After the birthday of Krishna, it is time to celebrate Monti Fest for the catholic community to commemorate the birthday of Virgin Mary on September 8, every year.  This Monti Fest also known as nativity feast is also celebrated as harvest festival.    Monti fest will be followed by Ganesh Chaturthi on Monday, September 9, 2013 in celebration of the birthday of lord Ganesha, which is also observed as harvest festival which shows that we have a cultural bonding, irrespective of the religions we belong to.

Since it is a harvest festival the catholic brethren offer the first stalk of new crop of paddy frown in their fields to god and seek his blessings.  Catholics prepare for this festival in advance with nine days of novena in the churches.  This includes children offering colourful flowers to Mother Mary arranged tastefully in plates and other containers culminating in the birthday of Virgin Mary on September 8th.  On this day Catholics come to church to offer special mass and the fresh stalks of paddy are blessed by the priest in a   special ceremony.  The stalks of paddy thus blessed are distributed to the laity who takes them home and consume a few grains of rice powdered and mixed with the sweet coconut milk specially prepared on this day with the entire family during lunch or dinner.

ENARADA NEWS AND WEBCAST

This is also called a family festival as all members of the family spread across come together for this festival as much as possible.  Even newly married daughters or sons, who live separately with their families for convenience, come together during this festival to their parent’s homes to celebrate the festival together.  Hence, this festival also marks the unity and harmony among Catholic families.  For the family members who are abroad or in other parts of the country there is the tradition of sending the blessed grains of rice by post so that the spirit of family unity and harmony is felt by those who are away during the festival day.

For children this day holds lots of enthusiasm as churches distributes sugarcane for those who bring flowers to mother Mary. The very sight of children carrying their sugarcane home demonstrates the spirit of festival.

As for the food aspect this is the only festival on which Catholics go for a fully vegetarian meal.  They prepare a number of dishes including curry of Alun-Dento with hug plums (Colocasia and stem of a particular variety of leafy green that is grown during this period).  Families also make a variety of vegetarian dishes which is usually in odd numbers that includes new vegetables like lady’s finger, ridge guard, local cucumber, sprouted green gram and many other locally grown vegetables.

Despite modernity sweeping across many homes these days, this festival of Nativity which is also celebrated as the family festival, holds much relevance to the society.  It emphasizes the relevance of the institution of family which shows signs of fading slowly but steadily.

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