Saligao comes together for Vangodd festival

  • | Wednesday | 28th June, 2017

Celebrating togetherness of all the communities of Saligao, the village hosted the second edition of its festival called 'Vangodd de Saligao' on Sunday at the premises of Mae de Deus Church. "We also have traditional Goan songs, such as mando, dekhni and other Goan music," added the animators. They further said that the entire event is organized by taking contributions from the various parish communities in Saligao with an aim to bring everyone together. ""A total of 18 Somudais (parish communities) come together to form the vangod. "The villagers cook and serve kodi, kismur, salad, fish, pickle, prawns and other traditional Goan dishes," said Rodrigues.

Celebrating togetherness of all the communities of Saligao, the village hosted the second edition of its festival called 'Vangodd de Saligao' on Sunday at the premises of Mae de Deus Church. This event is organized on the occasion of the feast of St John the Baptist and the theme for this year's event was 'Earth is not a garbage bin, so don't litter'.Speaking to TOI, parish priest of Saligao, Fr Mathew Rodrigues, says the Vangodd is an effort to display our unity. "We celebrate our togetherness giving thanks to God for the rains. We come together for a social purpose and a social cause. Through this festival, we want to preserve our Goan identity and our Goenkarponn," said Rodrigues.He further said that people from all walks of life are invited to participate in the feast which has an entertainment programme followed by free community lunch. "The villagers cook and serve kodi, kismur, salad, fish, pickle, prawns and other traditional Goan dishes," said Rodrigues. He further added that the main attraction is also a live demo of cooking traditional dishes like mango jam, jackfruit jam, chonne, pudde and pez, which are served free in an eco-friendly way in a kotti (coconut shell). The villagers of Saligao were also impressed with the success of the low-cost, grassroots festival celebrated at Saligao.Speaking to TOI , a local, Cyril Coelho, said, "The term Vangodd means getting together all villagers as a fellowship. We celebrate this event on the occasion of the feast of St John the Baptist, not on the same day, but on a Sunday as it is a holiday for everybody.""A total of 18 Somudais (parish communities) come together to form the vangod. Vangodd in Konkani means 'togetherness' and so the event is organized to bring the communities of Saligao together," he added.Eulalia Remedious, a local resident, told TOI that the response this year was very good. Elvino, another local resident, said, "We instructed the people not to litter. Two bins were kept; one for wet garbage and one for dry garbage and these are the things we wanted to bring forth to the people."Sharing more insight into the entire event, parish animators Natasha Fernandes and Cleta D'Souza said that each parish community is given a task of making traditional sweets such as pickle, ale bele, mugachem godshem, awan, sanna and other traditional sweets. Also many fruits such as jackfruit, banana, papaya and other Goan fruits are served at the event."We also have traditional Goan songs, such as mando, dekhni and other Goan music," added the animators. They further said that the entire event is organized by taking contributions from the various parish communities in Saligao with an aim to bring everyone together. "The uniqueness of this event is that we don't have a masters of ceremony, no alcohol and no plastic," said the animators, adding that the it was not only the people of Saligao who come for the event but people from all over Goa who witness it.

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