Nativity Feast : By German and Dutch Konkani Association
Report and Pictures by Kevin Coutinho
Sep 17: German and Dutch Konkani Association (GDKA) met on 13th Sept to celebrate Nativity of Mother Mary (Monti Fest). People from most parts of Germany and Holland participated in this gathering.
The celebration started with honoring Mother Mary with fresh flowers along with traditional hymn ‘Sokkod Sangata Meliya’..‘Moriek Hogolsiya’. Then we had blessing of new harvest (which was being brought from Mangalore) by Fr. Robert Rego and Fr. Ivan Lobo, followed by Eucharistic Celebration.
After the Mass Celebration, every one marched towards the Church hall. The program started with President Anthony D'Silva delivered the welcome speech. Fr. Francis Corea from Mumbai, who was on a visit to Germany, inaugurated our new web site www.gdka.org All the new members were welcomed and they were asked to introduce themselves to others. We had a welcome dance, which was presented by Sr. Maria Saures. Soon after the welcome dance was over, we had a delicious lunch consisting of 7 vegetables, Manglorian style Pork, chicken fry and Sanaas (Idlis).
After the lunch was over and everyone was settled, we started our next activity. Everyone was provided with a number ranging from 1 to 4 and then accordingly 4 groups were made and we had competition in between this group. Each team had to select one Team leader and have a Team name. Three fathers were asked to judge the competition.
Three games were played 'Newspaper Mummy', Drawing competition and the Third game was Drama/Tv Ad /Singing/dancing competition. It was fun seeing people in 60s & 70s taking active part in the competition along with Sisters and other youngsters. Father’s gave point to all the games according to the team member's involvement in the game. Three teams were then presented with a Trophy according to the points they earned.
Once the competition was over, we had 2 dances performed by the sisters followed by a dance from our president and his wife (Anthony and Lenny D'Silva).
We had some special music played by renowed Dj from Frankfurt - Dj Stephen Lobo. A special thanks to him for entertaining us with such a lovely music. Everyone was on their feet's dancing to the tunes of Konkani Masala and Bollywood music, which lasted for more than an hour.