Gerry D’Mello
Daijiworld Media Network, Toronto
Toronto, Sep 5: The Monthi-Fest celebration has tremendous significance to the Catholic community residing in Canada, as it celebrates not only the birthday of the mother of Jesus Christ but also the new harvest. Through this solemn yet festive event, community members demonstrate unity and solidarity in their Catholic faith, and rich ethnic heritage and work towards enriching their children’s understanding and love of culture.
The Mangalorean Association of Canada (MAC) to whom this pioneering venture is attributed, is organizing the event on Sunday September 11, at the St Maximilian Kolbe Church followed by a cultural programme at John Paul II Polish Cultural Centre in Mississauga. Children are encouraged to bring flowers at 3.30 pm to offer to Mother Mary and sweets will be distributed to the participants. Six priests will celebrate a Konkani Mass, including Fr Roshan D’Souza, the spiritual director of MAC. Renowned Konkani singers in Canada will join the angelic choir under the dynamic leadership of acclaimed choir director Merlyn Rodrigues.
This year, the Konkani community in Toronto and surrounding areas will be privileged to celebrate their most cherished ‘Monthi Fest’ together with MAC’s 20th anniversary celebration. A cultural programme has been organized to satisfy the clamoring demands of the community who soak up the traditional Konkani songs, short skits, and dances like a sponge to water. The grand component of the cultural programme ‘Sambram’ (celebration) will be staged by Do Re Mi Fa Creations, the renowned Konkani Music Group headed by music maestro Ashith Pinto and Konkani Nightingale Babita Pinto will be like icing on the cake. Together with renowned artists Konkani’s ace Manohar Pais, acclaimed choir director Merlyn Rodrigues, Mothiyam So’r fame Sonia Monteiro, popular singers Lara Rebello, Diyona Pinto, Vinod Saldanha, heart-throb of younger generation Linton Pinto, child artistes - award winner Ethan Pinto, Zach Pinto, Reanna D’Souza, Pearl Saldanha, and Olivia Saldanha will deliver melodious Konkani songs with their silken voices. Canada’s renowned Konkani comedians Santhu-Monthu fame Santosh D’Souza and Ronald Monteiro are all set to enthrall the audience with their rib-tickling jokes. The contemporary teen Jasmine will make the audience dance with her unique dance performance. The concept, music and direction for this much-awaited ‘Sambram’ cultural event done by Konkani world’s renowned Ashith Pinto and the programme will be compered by Konkani’s superstar MTG fame Babita Pinto.
As a special attraction, for the first time in the Konkani history of Canada, a video projecting a theme song for the Mangalorean Association of Canada will be released. The music programming, audio recording and mixing for this song were done by Ashith Pinto and harmony has been crafted by Alwyn Noronha, Bajpe. This theme song is melodiously sung by Merlyn Rodrigues, Sonia Monteiro, Violet Pais, Lucy D’Mello, Irene Mathias, Diyona Pereira, Lydwin Lobo, Lavina D’Souza, Prescilla D’Cunha, Manohar Pais, Lancy Rodrigues, Paul Mathias, Edwin D’Souza, Osvin Rebello, and Lawrence Pinto, the talented members of the Association. Canada is famous for its gorgeous scenery and breathtaking nature. Its beauty cannot be described in words but can be partly captured in pictures and videos. MAC theme song has offered glimpses of beautiful Canada through the lenses of Design Out Loud, a well-known video production company in Canada. Throughout the filming of this video, ace cinematographer Aman Chandak has given special attention to capturing the beauty of Canada without losing the essence of the theme song.
Maxim D’Mello and Vijay Dante, the incumbent president and the vice-president of MAC informed Daijiworld that the preparations are going on in full swing and that there will be a big turnout this year. They urged the Konkani community residing in Toronto and surrounding areas not to miss this golden opportunity and to attend in large numbers to celebrate Blessed Virgin Mother’s birthday celebration. An authentic sumptuous vegetarian Mangalurean dinner ‘Novem Jevonn’ catered by Canada's one and only ‘Konkan Delite’ will be served at the Monthi Fest. They also informed that only a few tickets are available and requested to buy entry passes at the earliest to avoid disappointment.
Undoubtedly, this will be a unique and memorable Konkani event for Konkani diaspora residing in Canada.