Media release

Mangalore, May 1: The annual parish feast of St Vincent Ferrer church, Valencia will be held on Wednesday, May 2.

Locally known as 'Vhoddlem Fest' (The Big Feast), it is being celebrated for the fourth year running. Although it is being traditionally celebrated on a Wednesday, which is a normal working day, all parishioners take part actively in celebrating it.

It is a long-awaited occasion, with many relatives from distant places joining in. Rarely does any parish in the city celebrate the feast on a week day. 

The Valencia Parish is observing the year 2006-07 as a year of relationship, All through June 2006 to  May 2007, the parish pastoral council has chosen various themes for every  month such as relationship with God, relationship between husband and wife, relationship between parents and children, relationship with neighbors, relationship with body and soul, relationship  with religious people, relationship with  needy people etc.

Various programes have already been organized on these themes.  Celebration of Family Week is one among them.
The Voddlen Fest will be an occasion for the parishioners to strengthen the relationship with their family members and relatives.

The Festal Mass will be celebrated at 10 am; Archbishop Emeritus Ignatius Pinto of Bangalore will be the main celebrant. A cultural programme will be held at 6pm in the evening. The highlight of the evening will be a Konkani play “Dubhaav Naka Bhava” (Don't Suspect, Brother) written by Richard Kavtar and directed by Dolphy Saldanha.

The celebration is organized under the guidance of parish priest Fr Paul Pinto, assistant parish priest Kiran Pinto, parish pastoral council vice president Louis Pinto and secretary Arun Raj.