News and pics: Rons Bantwal

Daijiworld Media Network – Mumbai(EP)

Mumbai, Sep 14: Mount Mary church in Bandra is known as the pilgrim center and a symbol of love and reconciliation in the country. The week long Mount Mary Fair 2015 started here on September 12. The fair and festival that has a history of 400 years is being celebrated in the name of Mount Mary fair.

Mount Mary means the festival of the mother of the mountains. There is citation that the celebration of the feast in Bandra that was started in 1566 later became prevalent among Catholics in Goa and Coastal Karnataka.

Mons in Latin means mountain. There is an assumption that the festival in a hut on the mountain in Bandra later continued as the festival of the mother. However as Catholics in the coastal area had made agriculture as their main occupation, it became the celebration of harvest.

The celebration continues for nine days. Novenas with special devotion for nine days as preparations for the birth day of Mother Mary are held just before the festival. It is customary that children arrange pretty flowers in beautiful baskets and offer them to the mother in the church in devotion. However the celebrations in the Mount Mary church in Bandra start from the first Sunday that follows the birthday of Mother Mary and continue for a week.