MANGALURU: The clamour to declare a public or government holiday for the feast of nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary celebrated on September 8, is again growing louder with the Catholic Sabha Mangaluru Pradesh pressurising the government on the issue.The demand has been put forward by Christian leaders from several years. The feast is locally called as Monti Fest in Konkani , and is considered as the only family feast among Christians living in the coastal belt, and celebrated with fervour from several centuries. However, only Christian education institutions declare a holiday for the same, while others don’t.Paul Rolphy D’Costa, president of Catholic Sabha, told TOI that the Konkani Christian community in undivided Dakshina Kannada district has been celebrating this as a family feast, and is considered as important a festival as Christmas and Easter for them. “However, some of our children and others working in the government as well as private sector cannot make it to the celebration. While Catholic institutions declared the day as a holiday, however, non-Catholic institutions consider it as a working day. Our demand to the government is that the day should be declared as a public holiday in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts, which has a majority of Catholics ,” he said.“Close to a lakh Catholic students hail from undivided Dakshina Kannada district, and if the education institutions do not declare a holiday on that auspicious day, the meaning of the family feast will be lost,” says Rolphy.He added that this time they have met Sasikanth Senthil deputy commissioner, U T Khader, minister for urban development and chief minister H D Kumaraswamy on the issue. “They have been very positive about considering the day as a public holiday in undivided Dakshina Kannada,” he said, adding that Kodagu declares a holiday for Huthari, a harvest festival, and that the same should be extended for Monti Fest.“Last year, when a similar issue was raised, the former MLA of Mangaluru South constituency, did not entertain it, and said there was no need for a public holiday,” claim sources.The Christian schools and colleges across the district declare the day under the local holiday provision. In between 2015-2017, signature campaigns were held in the Mangalore Diocese level, to urge the government to declare a holiday, but it was not very successful.

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