California Goans Gather For Festival Of Sao Joao In Mountain View

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA -- The festival of Sao Joao (St. John the Baptist) is celebrated with great pomp and gusto by the Catholic community of a tiny state called Goa on the western coast of India, and in other countries such as Portugal. It's a celebration typically held on June 24. However, the Goans who settled in Silicon Valley -- known as Californian Goans -- celebrated the festival in great revelry June 26 at Rengstorff Park in Mountain View.

In Goa, the festival is celebrated during monsoon season (rain water is warm not cold like the California rain water). The young and old wear copels, which are coronets made of fruits and flowers, and jump into wells and lakes. There is much music, dancing and singing in the streets. Food and drinks are distributed among the participants. It is one of the most colorful and vibrant festivals of Goa.

The jumping in the wells signifies the "Jumping with Joy" of St. John in his mother Elizabeth's womb when Jesus' mother Mary went to visit her, as narrated in the Holy Bible. In Goa, this festival focuses on newlywed couples. The son-in-law and the new bride are invited to her mother's home, where they are feted and the son-in-law is made to jump in the well first. In turn, he has to give bottles of feni, an alcoholic drink made from cashew apples, to the villagers. When the festivities are over, the bride goes back to her husband's home with a basket full of fruits and other goodies, called ozem. Prayers are also offered so that the new bride may have a child soon. As such, it is a fertility ritual.

To replicate the festival in the Bay Area, the Californian Goans had Rengstorff Park decorated with flowers and fruits, and there was much feasting. A boat was filled with fruits including mangoes, grapes, watermelons, pineapples, bananas and oranges. A message carved on the watermelon said: "Viva Sao Joao." Traditional food such as sorpotel (a pork dish to die for), crab xec xec, and sola maas was served in cundlies -- or clay pots. A water well (baim) made out of a large oak wine barrel and painted to mimic laterite stones, was filled with ice and cold drinks.

Rishon Rodrigues took hundreds of pictures of the milling crowds. There was much stomping of feet and whirling of skirts to music provided by Roshelle and Randolfo Dias and by Sanio-Natasha Fernandes.

The newly married couples feted this year were Ruie and Drina Fernandes and Domnic and Mari Lou Manuel. Most festival-goers wore colorful copels made of beautiful flowers and fruits. The copel competition was won by Francis Fernandes and Gracian Esteves.

Californian Goans may not have been able to participate in the Sao Joao festival in Goa but they brought the festival to California. At the end of the day, the revelers jumped in the cool pool to the resounding chants of "Viva Sao Joao."

Article by Bella Comelo; Photos by Rishon Rodrigues