Festival of Harvest

Festival of Harvest

Every birth on this earth is an expression of God’s unconditional love for us. Every birth has a unique call from God  to fulfill  our mission before we return to Him, the source of our life. The call of God was magnificently evident in the birth of Mary our mother. Joachim and Anna her parents helped their daughter to fulfill all that God had planned for his creation. Mary’s ‘Yes’ was a signature on a blank cheque through which we still draw God’s love and mercy. The birth of Mary has brought immense joy to this world.

The feast of the nativity of Mary has a profound meaning to the people of South Canara of Karnataka.  

Konkani speaking people of and from Mangalore celebrate the feast day of our Mother along with the harvest festival on the same day as thanksgiving for the new crops. The feast is called Monthi Fest. However the preparations to honour Mother Mary start nine days prior to the feast along with novena prayers. People of every age attend novena prayers with fresh flowers as offering to Mary during the nine days leading up to the feast day. Children offer flowers standing around the statue of Infant Mary.

On the feast day the devotees, including children with flowers, and community leaders with freshly harvested paddy enter the church in procession  after the blessing,  as an offering of the first bounty of nature to Mother Mary. A small statue of infant Mary is placed on a table in front of the altar. The paddy  is placed next to the statue to be blessed and distributed to the congregation after Mass, and children approach the table in a single line and throw flowers with the accompaniment of the age-old hymns “Moriyek Hogolsian” and “Sokkod Sangatha Melyan” to express our love and thanksgiving  to our heavenly Mother.

After the Mass the blessed paddy is distributed. The elders of each family usually collect them and take them home for further celebration. When the blessed paddy is brought to the house, it is kept at the altar. Varieties of vegetables are cooked. Some prepare 7 items and many 9. Once the meal is ready, some of the blessed new paddy is powdered and mixed with milk. The elder of the family then distributes the milk and it is taken with  much devotion.

The beauty of this celebration is that the family members sit on the floor and have meal on  banana leaves (like the Onam meal in Kerala). It is very much a family celebration. The missing family members are fondly remembered and some of the blessed new paddy is sent to them by post.

Though we witness a lot of changes in most of the religious practices today, the feast of the Nativity of Mary has remained very unique to Mangaloreans even to this day. Those same old hymns, fragrance of new crop, vegetables and other produce, take them back to their childhood memories. Devotion to Mother Mary has always remained the same till today.

I am told that the Jesuits from Karnataka working in Nagaland celebrate this feast there as well with much gradeur.

Let us thank her and continue to draw through her intercession God’s love and mercy for our land.