Friday, June 27, 2008

San Joao Festival Rocks in Goa...!! Viva San Joao

The annual popular Sao Joao festival was celebrated with great enthusiasm and fervour across the state on Monday June 23. The festival is better known for the jumping of people into the local village wells. The jumping act symbolizes St John Baptist’s leaping in his mother Elizabeth’s womb when visited by Mary who was expecting Jesus. Sao Joao is also known as the ‘Janvoiyanchem fest’ better known as the feast of sons-in-laws. Once the traditional process is over, all the young and old then plunge into the village wells.The feast, locally known and observed as ‘Sao Joao’, is always celebrated with great enthusiasm. A unique feature which distinguishes Goa from other parts of the world is the act of jumping into the wells, ponds and rivers in contrast to the normally held church services.

Newly-married couples play a very important role in the celebration. Generally the bride carries all the goodies to be distributed among the youth of the village and the groom carries all the hard drinks like the Goan ‘feni’, beer and others.





The day is just celebrated with different games and traditional events like the traditional boat festival which is being organized every year at Siolim on the occasion of Sao Joao.



People who take part in the celebration are, as a rule, made to wear on their heads a crown - traditionally known as ‘Kopel’ - made of flowers.






The Sao Joao Festival is most pompously celebrated in Goa amongst the Catholic community. This occasion marks the celebration by the local youth in the villages of Goa who normally get drunk and jump into wells according to the existing tradition of Sao Joao festival.



9 comments:

Hemanth Potluri said...

wow bad i missed ...how did i miss it..u dint tell me...wahhhh :(.....lol....its nice to read the topic ...and pics r cool..


urs..hemu...

prajyot said...

yeah hemant..even this festival is really cool...symbol of unity and real treat to watch

ishqia said...

u r in goa.. i thought u were in banglore.. u a cristian..

prajyot said...

nopes...m an hindu..well m a perfact alien..he he...

yeah m from Goa...ever been here ?

Shalini Gowrisankar said...

That was some interesting stuff to know. Nice pics and nice write up as well :)

prajyot said...

thanks shalini...i had a recent visit at ur blog...i liked it a lot..keep visitng...

preetisoni said...

great post!!!i never knew about it yar!!!ki asa bhi hota hai..vese ak baat batauio ki kya sab log kuwe me kudte hai..i mean including woman n children also??.......
yar jaha pe kuwa na ho vo log kaha kudte hai ...nale me? ya sth else?....is jumping in well or sth else necessary or just for fun??....n why do they do so

prajyot said...

well jumping in well is a part of this season...

wat is most gr8 thing is that,this festival has nope bounds of standards of society..all participate..all enjoy..all enjoy to the fullest..!!

so when r u coming to goa?

preetisoni said...

:):):).....soon very soon...want to jump into the well....:):)once:)