Media Release
New York, Sep 14: On September 9, around 235 Catholics from the United States East Coast states came together at Our Lady of Angels Church in Brooklyn, NY to celebrate the feast of the Nativity of Mother Mary (Monthi Festh). This event was hosted by the Mangalorean Catholic Association of the East Coast (MCA-EC).The weather was beautiful and the attendees showed up in high spirits wearing traditional/ ethnic attire filled with joy and excitement leading to a beautiful Monthi Fest celebration.
The event was kicked off by MCA-EC's president Steven Aranha’s welcome talk and board introduction followed by a traditional Konkani Mass. The vado gurkars/gurkarns led the solemn procession with colourful ‘Damaskachi Sathri’, followed by the executive board members - Susanna D’Souza, Belinda D’Souza, Reema D’Souza and Sonia Cutinha carrying the ‘beautifully decorated palki with baby Mary’, followed by the altar servers and mass celebrants. Fr Robert Lasrado blessed the kernels of rice (Novem). Fr Robert Lasrado, celebrated the Konkani Mass that reminded most members of the traditional Mass experience back in Mangaluru. 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, 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’. It was a delight to watch children enjoying the showering of flowers and spreading happiness whilst celebrating Mangalurean culture.
The showering of flowers was followed by the consumption of the Novem drink made along with milk and an authentic Mangalurean vegetarian ‘Novem Jovan’. After the delicious lunch, the cultural event began.
The afternoon saw several MCA-EC members of all age groups who had practiced hours and weeks to 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. Emcees Monthy D’Cunha and Joy Santhosh did a great job keeping the audiences enthralled all afternoon. Susanna D’Souza-VP, from the board gave the vote of thanks to all volunteers, Mass celebrants and attendees of the day. They 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.
To learn about MCA-EC, log into Facebook page or by visiting the website at www.mca-ec.org for more information on the association.