Dear Friends
When I was in Saligao, we used to celebrate a great feast of Sonarbhatt and
that is the serenade from the little chapel in Sonarbhatt to the Church and
back. It was attended by Christians and Hindus too. The persons to be
remembered in this feast are Titus,Aunty Peggie, and Uncle Remi xavier. The
first one used to go round collecting the money for this feast but the major
part of the decoration used to come from his house. Titus was an artist and
did paper wax flowers and all these found way to the chapel. He took delight
in decorating the altar in the chapel and also the cherol. Peggie was
noticed at the time of decoration. She would pull each and every one with
her usual style and it was not a nice thing not to be there. Uncle Remigio
was there in person to subervise the work but his presence was a must in the
procession and his famous hym O brillant . If there was more money coming
then the serenade had one band and sometimes two. The procession used to be
great with hyms, crackers etc while our parish priest waited for us at the
church with his nice two words and a packet of goodies for the children and
the adult. The nice thing of the procession was the petromax carried mostly
by drunks and it swayed left and right as the drunks' legs went left and
right and then someone had to shout for the fast walkers to slow their speed
and the cherol of our lady changed shoulders and one had to be careful not
to say no to anyone . The moment the procession reached the church and on
the way back the road was lighted with candles . Even the Hindu homes took
time to light candles in a row thus showing unity in Saligao.
Albert
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