Sao Joao festival

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Goa is celebrating the Sao Joao festival on 24 June .

About Sao Joao 

• Every monsoon the Sao Joao feast is celebrated with grandeur and gaiety.
• It is dedicated to St. John the Baptist is celebrated  as the Sao Joao feast in Goa. 
• It is one of the most important festivals of the Catholic community in Goa.
• The Sao Joao traditional boat festival started in 1992 . 
• Highlights of celebrations
  • The festival celebrations include villagers jumping into the wells, streams and ponds. 
  • This jump is to signify the joy that St. John felt when Jesus was born. 
    • The boys are found merrily jumping into the water to commemorate the leap of joy, which St John is said to have taken in the womb of his mother St Elizabeth when virgin Mary visited her.”
  • It also includes playing the traditional gumott (percussion instrument).
  • It also includes revellers wearing the Kopel, the crown of fruits, flowers and leaves, parading in villages and often hopping from one place to another as they chant, “Sao Joao! Viva Sao Joao”. 
  • In Goa, Sao Joao is an occasion for the family and the villagers to get to know their newly wed daughters’ husbands a little better. 

Source:TH