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2009/1/12 JoeGoaUk <joego...@yahoo.co.uk>: > I wonder if the 'Almanac de parade' is still > available in Goa ( like A3 size large poster) > Which was the Festival guide for all > including the 'Feri; people like Khajem, Pernim etc > Those days, a man used to come house to > house for selling Almanac etc > He used to say/shout 'Betina, Bentina, > Almanac de Parade etc etc Interesting issue, Joe. I haven't seen it for a couple of years or more... This was written earlier this decade, can't recall when. FN GUARDING GOA'S WALLS... FOR A HUNDRED YEARS OVER TIME By Frederick Noronha PANJIM (Goa): This is the story of a quaint publication; once it marked each passing day in the life of a generation of Goans, but today is largely forgotten. 'Almanac de Parede' is a kind of a 'wall calendar' that has completed a quiet centenary of its publication from the South Goa town of Margao. This event would have gone almost totally unnoticed had it not been for the persistence of a Dutchman. "Almanac de Parede is basically a double A3 piece of paper, printed black and white, very traditional. The AdP listing all saints' (days) and all feasts in all Goan parochies in all districts and some postal (and other) info. It is available in Margao may be less outside," explains Patrice Reimens, an Amsterdam-based researcher curious about encountering varied cultures across the globe. Reimes was keen to lay his hands on a couple of copies, one for a friend in Romania, where they have "exactly the same, typically Catholic thing". But, in the past, the almanac wasn't just a quaint collectors item. At its peak it sold some 5000 copies, according to 74-year-old Elsa Correia, daughter of the founder of this publication, Joaquim Filipe Roque Correia, who first published it in the year 1903. It is still published in the Portuguese language, probably one of the very few publications in Asia in that language. Goa's last Portuguese-language daily, O Heraldo, shifted to the English language in 1983, due to dwindling readership in the tongue of the former colonial rulers of what currently is India's smallest state. Elsa Correia, fighting shy of the publicity and the credit for carrying out the publication, says after the death of her father, it was run by her late brother Domingos. She has taken over the reigns, "not as a business, but just to continue and serve the readers", as she put it. "He (my father Joaquim Correa) was a calendarist -- and knew everything regarding calendards, including religious calendars. He was the proprietor of Tipografia Progressa ('Tipography' is Portuguese for 'printing press') located behind Margao's Holy Spirit Church," Correia recalls. After his death in 1968, it was continued by his son, pharmacist Domingos Coreia. "It contains many useful information, and it is the only annual publication in Portuguese language in Goa. I've received letters from Italy and elsewhere (voicing interest about it)", she says. Currently the print-run is 1500 copies. Much of the calendar focuses on giving a run-up on which saint's feast falls on which day of the year. There are also details of the full moon, new-moon and quarter-moon dates, feasts of various churches and 'zatras' (temple festivals) around Goa, postal rates, bank and commercial holidays. In the past, it cost 25 paise. Today, the price is six rupees for the single newspaper-sized sheet, printed on one side. Septuagenarian Correa says she doesn't have a calculation of the time spent to bring out this publication. "I sit anytime and do it, and need to see other calendards or consult those (knowing accurately) Hindu festive days. Some feasts change their dates, so as to fall on a Sunday. But in villages like Chandor, the feasts are always fixed," she adds. She says the press run by the family once brought out other publications. But it became old and there was "nobody interested in supervising". The earlier generation has to cope with advancing age, and youngsters are not necessarily interested. "He (my father) taught me about calendaring. Now I need to revise (those principles)," she jokes. As if to mark the changing times, there is a new set of calendars in Goa. But these are more likely to be in Marathi or English, only a few published in Goa, and many coming from the much larger and more-vibrant publishing houses of nearby Maharashtra, focussing primarily on an area which is culturally not wholly dissimilar from this small state. 'Kalnirnay' is one of the most popular, that sells in many editions, in a number of languages. It's unique formula is to include house-hold hints, recipies, or anything else of interest to the womenfolk on the back of each page of the annual calendar. Almanac de Parede has anyway see a tumultous century for Goa, marked by many drastic changes in the regimes that ruled the places, languages which were favoured by the rulers and the citizen, and a yet some more powershifts in a small region, (ENDS) -- FN * Independent Journalist http://fn.goa-india.org Blog: http://fredericknoronha.wordpress.com Tech links from South Asia: http://twitter.com/fn M: +91-9822122436 P: +91-832-2409490