Media Release
USA, Sep 12: Almost 300 Catholics from the United States East coast states of New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Connecticut gathered together on Saturday September 10 at Our Lady of Peace Church in North Brunswick, NJ to celebrate the feast of the Nativity of Mother Mary (Monthi Fest). This event was hosted by the Mangalorean Catholic Association of the East Coast (MCA-EC).The weather was great, peoples spirits were high and it was a perfect setting for a feast to remember.
The event was kicked off by MCA-ECs President Shyna Quadras’ welcome and introduction followed by a traditional Konkani mass. The altar servers Shane Quadras and Stephy D’Mello along with vado Gurkars/Gurkarns led the solemn procession with colorful “damaskachi sathri”, followed by the Executive Board with “kanshi” and “beautifully decorated palki with baby Mary”, followed by the celebrants, Fr Robert Lasrado, Fr Ron Machado, Fr Augustine D’Souza, Fr Frederick Clement, Deacon Glen Mendonca and Deacon Francis DMello. Fr. Robert kept the congregation’s attention with an awesome Konkani mass that reminded most members of the traditional mass experience back in Mangalore. Fr Robert then blessed the kernels of rice (novem) imported from Mangalore.The melodious choir was led by Vijai Furtado accompanied by Tasha Pais on the keyboard and the Video and photography was done by Christopher Monis.
After the Konkani mass around 90 children lined up in a procession to shower flowers on infant Mother Mary’s statue. The board members and volunteers did an extraordinary job in ensuring every child got an opportunity to shower the flowers as the choir sang Sokkodd Sangatha Melleam..Moriek Hogolsia. The colorful array of petals looked beautiful in the hands of adorable children. It was a delight to watch children enjoy and stay connected to their Mangalorean roots through this ceremony. The statue of Infant Mother Mary was showered with petals of roses, marigolds and lilies and that scene reminded many as if they were all in Mangalore at that moment.
The showering of flowers was followed by some mouth-watering delicious vegetarian lunch of Boiled Rice, Basmati Rice, Chapathi, Dal, Tendli Channa, Long Beans, Navaratna Kurma, from Sukh Sagar, Koromb made by Anita D’Souza, and authentic mangalorean Pothrade made by Monthi D’Cunha. To top it off we had delicious Vorn with the novem incorporated in it.
After the sumptuous lunch, the afternoon began with a welcome speech said in Konkani by our president Shyna Quadras. The board members were then blessed by Fr Ron in a beautiful diya lighting ceremony.
The afternoon saw several MCA-EC members of all age groups who had practiced hours and weeks put up one fabulous cultural show for all attendees. The sound system was provided by Vijai Furtado and Clayton Monis. The drama, comedy, dance and music that followed kept the audience at the edge of their seats as they were cheering and clapping all day. Emcee Dinesh D’Costa did a great job keeping the audiences enthralled all afternoon. Syprian Rodrigues -VP Public relations from the board gave the vote of thanks to all volunteers, mass celebrants and attendees of the day. We then had tea and snacks sponsored by Bob and Olivia Vas from Babco foods.
The MCA-EC board did a mind blowing job by putting in all their hard work to make this event a great success. They comprise of Shyna Quadras - president, Syprian Rodrigues - vice president, Reema D’Souza - treasurer, Amberine Saldanha - secretary and Victor Sequiera - regional coordinator. They also had a lot of support from previous board members.
One can learn more about MCA-EC on their Facebook page or by visiting their website at www.mca-ec.org for more information on the association.
View all the pictures of the event below:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/btfYKTw7VPqRGTXw8
https://photos.app.goo.gl/R476SzXVjhf947QF8