Pics by Kalakruti
Daijiworld Media Network - Panaji

Panaji, Aug 4: The annual traditional cucumber feast also known as 'tovxeamchem fest' was celebrated at the St Anna Church at Talaulim in Santan with great faith and enthusiasm.

Thousands of undivided faithfuls belonging to different caste and religion flocked at the church of St Anna to offer cucumbers and get blessed at the feet of St Anna.

The ‘Touchachem Fest’, like every festival, is a festival when people beseech the saint for her graces with various offerings. The most common request is: ‘Senhora, Tomai Colher, dai me mulher’. It is generally performed by bachelors and spinsters. So while the bachelor men who pledge with a wooden spoon to appeal for a wife, the women beseech - ‘Senhora, tomai urido (a kind of pulse) dai me marido’. Newly weds too make pledges, they make their pledges saying - ‘Senhora, tomai pepino (cucumber) dai me menino’.

There is quite a legend that surrounds the dedication of this shrine to the mother of Mary. This legend is narrated by Fr F de Souza in his ‘Oriente Conquistado’. It goes somewhat like this: In 1577, in Tiswadi, some devotees purchased the site which came to be known as ‘Quinta de Sant Ana’. This site was used by the students of the ‘Colegio de S Paulo’ to spend their leisure hours. The priest who was residing in the vicinity was entrusted to convert the villagers of Moula and Talaulim. So he decided to construct a small hermitage. However, he failed to consecrate the hermitage in honor of any known saint.

Then one day, a local named Bartalomeu Marchon said that he saw an old woman coming down the hill who claimed that the hermitage was her residence. Not knowing the lady’s name, the priest propagated this news throughout the village. On hearing about it, an old Brahmin lady, claimed that when she was seriously ill the same old lady appeared to her in her dreams, telling her to rise from the bed. The old Brahmin lady said that this lady called herself Anne and said that she wanted a house in the village. The old Brahmin lady claimed that this dream resulted in her miraculous recovery. As a direct result of all these incidents, the priest to avowed that St Anne had to be revered in the village, and so the Church was consecrated to St Anne.