Picture of Boa Morte Saibinn.
After many years I am present this time in my village
Candolim to celebrate the village Church feasts in August, on 13th-14th
of Boa Morte Saibinn and on 15th that of Asumpti Saibinn as we used
to call then during my younger days. The
feast of Assumpt Saibinn was preceded by 14 days Novenas. In between from 13 to
14th August, the feast of Boa Morte is celebrated with much
reverence to Boa Morte Saibinn and with top respect and devotion because on 13th
August we used to consider as per our tradition as the day when Saibinn Mae
died. In fact, in reality, Saibinn Mae
never died, we believe that Saibinn Mae was taken alive to Heaven by God.
Since, it was considered then as the day of Saibinn Mae’s death, there was obligation
on us to mark this day as prayer day. I still remember as a Choir Boy how we
used to sing a Hym on this day as:
BOA
MORTICHO DISU, ONODVONTH SUKH SONTOSU.
ANJ
BODVVE GAIAN KOTIT, NOVUI KORU.
This Hym was lengthy
and with accompaniment of Violin by our Church Mistiri, the Hym sounds very
beautiful. Unfortunately, now there is
no Church Mestiri and nobody knows this Hym either. During our days, we were
trained to sing by the Professional Solfist Mestiri while now everything is
gone into the hands of Unsolfist Amateurs who do not know the history and
tradition of our Church.
This time to my surprise, just at the entrance of the Church,
a Tiatro of professional Tiatrists was staged to raise fund for the Church activities. During my days, this type of entertainment
was not tolerated since it was considered as the day of the death of Saibinn
Mae. Hence, faithful were engaged in
prayer in sombre mood and not in merry making at the Church “Adrar”. This change happened because of the change in
time which demands collection of money.
I feel shortly time will come for the Church Pe. Vigars to organize
Balroom Dance not only at the Adrar but inside the Church itself.
Candolim girl singing her solo
On 15th we celebrated the feast of Assumpt Saibinn
preceded by 14 Novenas. During our days,
these Novenas were done in the mornings when we used to bring fresh flowers in
small baskets and sing the beautiful Hym “DEVACHE MATE (MAYE), PAVU TUM AMKAM,
DEVACHE MATE (MAYE), DHIRU DHI AMKAM.
Again, the old system is gone into extinction and Novenas are
held now in the evenings giving top
priority for money collection which was not existing during our days. During old days money collection in the
Church was done only on Sundays and on any other feast day.
On 15th yesterday, another Tiatro
“OSLEO CHUKI GOEMKAR KORTAT” by Comedian Ambe was staged at the same place on
Church Adrar. It was scheduled to start
at 7.30 PM but due to lethargic attitude of the Church, the organizer, it
finally started at 8.30 PM, that means, one long hour late and because of this late
the audience was put into inconvenience. This is the very bad habit of the
Candolim Church authority to ignore the discipline of time schedule. And to
make the matter worse, the Church Pe. Vigar unnecessarily lengthened his prayer
by talking something not required at that particular late hour. He should know that people are coming by
paying money to see the Tiatro and not
to listen to his speech. It is okay what
he does in the Church by preaching lengthy sermons till faithful are fed up but
the same behavior he cannot apply outside the Church Altar. He should know that Tiatro Stage is different
from the Church Altar.
The story of the Tiatro was good but comedy part was noisy
not in tune with traditional Tiatro.
Unnecessarily shouting and screaming demoted the quality of the
Tiatro. The scene where Ambe shown
undressing himself even by removing his Underwear looked ugly and filthy. The
sideshow songs were good including by
the young girl guest artiste from Candolim.
A. Veronica Fernandes,
Candolim, Goa.
Tel: 7507394349.
