Grand Celebrations of Monti Fest by the Mangalorean Catholic Association – EC
Monthi Fest is a Mangalorean Catholic festival that celebrates the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.The devotion to Our Lady begins with nine days of Novenas and culminates with the Monthi Fest mass on September 8th, following the showering of flowers and procession with her infant image singing the timeless hymns, “MoriyekHogolsiam” and “SakkadSangathamMelyan”.Monthi Fest also signifies the Mangalorean harvest festival, an occasion to bless God’s abundant bounty. Novem, new stalks of freshly-harvested paddy and sugarcane are blessed and distributed to the faithful to be integrated in their traditional vegetarian fare for the day and the delectable “vorn”.This year MCA-EC Celebrates Monthi Fest on Saturday, September 9th, 2017, at Our Lady Of Peace Church, with a Holy Mass, showering of flowers, cultural presentation and dinner.
We are ever grateful to Fr John Polyak, the parish priest of Our Lady of Peace Church for making the church available for us to come together and celebrate MonthiFesth.
The program started with a special mass in honor of our blessed Mother Mary. The procession was led the Executive Board, followed by the vado gurkars / gurkarns, Advisory Council carrying the colorful umbrellas that transformed the place into a huge celebration. The special palanquin carrying the statue of infant Mother Mary was brought into the church during the procession and placed on a decorated table inside the church prior to beginning the Eucharistic celebration. The Mass was concelebrated by 4 priests and one Deacon – Fr Ron Machado (Holy Family Catholic Church, NM), Fr Lawrence Martis (Principal, St Xavier’s High School, Ahmedabad), Fr John Polyak (Our Lady of Peace Church, NJ), Fr Thomas Nadiviledathu (St Cecelia Church, NJ), and Deacon Glen Mendonca (St Joseph’s Church, NJ).
The order of mass was constructed in both Konkani and English to make this a very special celebration for all. It was a beautiful mass overflowing with the melodious hymns by the talented choir members led by Merlin Mendonca and Saritha Pinto. Both did a fantastic job in coordinating all the hymns with all the related choir singers. The kids – Tasha Pais on the organ, Amelia Fernandes and Sheryl D’Mello on the violin and Shaun D’Mello on the guitar all did a fantastic job.
Fr Lawrence’s homily was inspiring and every word took us closer to preparing our hearts to receive Jesus as he invited us to celebrate the Holy Eucharist. The offertory procession included gifts of Candle, Home, Bible and Rosary, Flowers, Fruits, Vegetables, Basket of Prayers, and also the ‘Novem’ and the prayers read by the youth members of the community. The mass collection was offered for the families affected by tragedy inflicted by Hurricane Harvey in Texas and also for the special projects of Our Lady of Peace Church. Special meditation song ‘ThujeLagiAailyaav’ was beautifully rendered by the choir. After the concluding rites and final blessing, the celebrants and the altar servers lined up for the recession and the choir sang ‘SomyaHaavnVetha’ as the recessional hymn.
Everyone waited until the recessional hymn and then lined up behind the procession to participate in the traditional showering of flowers. The statue of infant Mother Mary was beautifully decorated and everyone sang the hymn ‘SakkadSangathaMelya’ while the children walked dressed in their beautiful dresses to shower our blessed mother with ‘fragrant rose petals’. Everyone joined in and shared the blessings of these beautiful moments. This is the main reason why so many families travel from far away to join us to celebrate MonthiFesth. Everything to remind them of their days growing up in India and celebrating the feast with their families. It is a great tradition to continue so our children can enjoy the same celebrations.
The Executive Board spent many months planning this event after the Annual Summer Picnic in June earlier this year. The volunteers came forth to help and support in every possible way. This year again, we had over 370 registered guests and had to be managed with a seamless check-in process after the showering of flowers. The cultural program was held in the church hall. The grand cultural program was a befitting way to continue with the celebrations of the feast day. The blessed Novem (new crop) was crushed and mixed into milk and served as blessings as the guests entered the Church Hall. Hot snacks from Aroma Place and Dilip Bhai’s tea was promptly served. A perfect way to get the crowd meet and greet each other and get settled down to get the evening program started. Special thanks to Arine for building a beautiful palki for Baby Mary.
The cultural extravagancy was a visual treat and nicely woven with the traditional mangalorean music and dance culture. Sydney acknowledged the priests and the Deacon who had given the MCA-EC family the gift of the most spiritual uplifting mass. The program continued with everyone glued to their seats as they watched the talented kids and adults entertain the audience for almost 2 hours. Deacon Glen said the grace before meals and the generous spread of dinner specially catered from Aroma was served.
Dinner
Chana Tendli
Aloo Gobi
Veg Mandee
Dal Fry
Surma Curry
Payasam
Buttermilk
Royce Macwan, Vice-President and Anitha Pinto planned and managed the entire cultural program with such poise and maturity making sure that all was in order behind the scenes. It took this team, weeks of planning and dedication to get a huge line up of 17 performances to be a part of this cultural extravaganza. There was lots of byla music even after the dinner for everyone to join in and dance. DJ Clayton Monis did a wonderful job of keeping the music flowing through the evening. And very soon, it was time to wind up the evening. Royce Macwan, Vice-President rendered the Vote of Thanks. We would also like to thank our Sponsors DTDC, Babco, Smitha Dmello Party Decor, DJ Gladson, Dr Nigel Pereira, Party Zenith and Babco Foods. Also special thanks to Bernie and Arine for decorating the stage as well as setting up beautiful table center pieces.
None of this would have been possible without our wonderful entourage of volunteers who never ever said NO. They most graciously accepted the tasks assigned and truly served God in choosing to volunteer for Monti Fest.
This day of celebration of the Feast of Nativity of our Blessed Mother will not be forgotten in years to come. And to make sure that we hold a part of this memory forever, Christopher Monis captured the most interesting moments of the days’ event through his very skilled photography.
If you want to be a part of this beautiful celebration and also know more about the Mangalorean Catholic Association –EC Inc., please feel free to visit our website – www.mca-ec.org or just send an email to info@mca-ec.org
by Shilpa Menezes
Pics Christopher Monis
Happy feast.