São Joao celebrated across the state with religious fervour.
São Joao a traditional Goan festival celebrated in honour of St. John the Baptist, was commemorated throughout the state on Monday
São João is an annual Catholic religious festival celebrated on 24th June in Goa, India. According to tradition, after attending religious services , young Goan Catholic men leap into and swim in local wells, streams, and ponds as a tribute to Saint John the Baptist.
The feast of São João is a celebration of the birth anniversary of St John the Baptiser. St John was the son of St Elizabeth, a relative of Mary, the mother of Jesus. This feast is celebrated on 24th June. The significance of this date is that it falls three months after the Feast of the Annunciation (25th March). At the Annunciation, the angel Gabriel told Mary that she would bear a son (Jesus), and that Elizabeth was already six months pregnant with a son (Luke 1:36). Mary visited Elizabeth, and when Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby St John ‘leapt’ in her womb (Luke 1:44).[1] The Annunciation itself occurs nine months before Christmas, the feast of Jesus’ birth.
When John grew up, he is described as living in the wilderness, wearing clothes of camel’s hair, eating locusts and wild honey. John foretold the coming of the Messiah, Jesus. When Jesus was thirty years old, he was baptised by St John in the river Jordan.
The Nativity of John the Baptist is one of the oldest festivals of the Christian church, and there is record that it was already a big feast in the year AD 506.[2]
The feast of São João in Goa coincides with the time of the year when the monsoon usually has commenced, there are fresh greenery and flowers in the surroundings, and wells and other water bodies are full. Consequently, the celebration of the birth of St John in Goa apparently evolved to incorporate elements of celebration of the rainy season. Jumping in wells and ponds is symbolic of the baby leaping in the womb, and of the baptism in the river Jordan.[3] Women and men wear kopels made of flowers, and men also wear other adornments and vestments made from plant and other natural substances probably also a nod to the fact that St John wore natural coverings instead of clothing made of fabric.
While the feast of São João is celebrated across the Catholic world on the same day, Goa is the only plac[4] in the world where it is marked by leaping into wells. On this day, groups of people go around singing traditional songs accompanied with instruments like ghumot, mhadalem, and kansallem.
,” The festival has been described as being “quite popular among tourists from both India and abroad”.[5]
Villagers at Saligao, Goa, serve food to all present during the
