News: Pearl D'Souza
Pics: Adrian D'Souza
California, Sep 19: The Northern California Mangalorean Association (NCMA) members celebrated Monthi Fest on Saturday September 10th at Los Cerritos Community Center, Fremont CA. The Venue was beautifully decorated by Vanessa Mendonca with the help of volunteers. The altar, statue of Infant Mother Mary, tables, and food/drinks stations had a nice harvest themed decor.
The celebration began with a kids’ procession followed by the priest from the entrance to the altar with colorful flowers to offer to Mother Mary while the choir sang the traditional Monthi Fest hymn “Sokkodd Sangata Melleam”. A beautiful welcome and an intro prayer was done by MC Yahshua Nazareth.
The Mass was celebrated by Fr George Aranha with Acolyte Adiv Sequeira and Eucharistic minister Vanessa Mendonca. The choir was led by Shaila Prabhu along with pianist Komal Gaur. The reading was read by Katelyn D’Souza and the prayers of the faithful was read out by Ethan Nazareth, Tiara Pinto and Dwayne Mendonca. Offertory was offered by Betty Fernandes (president), Sharon Aranha (founder), Anthony Goveas (treasurer), Sylvia Deo (Board Member) , Dinesh Kumar and Vinitha Sequeira. The concluding prayer to Mother Mary was prayed by Aryan Gaur.
After the Mass, a beautiful intro to the history of Monthi Fest was narrated by Adiv Sequeira and enacted by Ohaan Sequeira. This was followed by a melodious hymn “Mary did you know” from Joshila Nazareth with guitarist Ethan Nazareth.
The NCMA board members along with volunteers set up the food and served the authentic Mangalurean food on a banana leaf placed over the plate. The menu consisted of Pathrode made of Taro leaf rice cakes soaked in authentic Mangalurean coconut gravy, Sonne Sukke, Moong Sukke, Valchi Baji and blackeyed beans gravy, french beans, Sannas, vegetable and white rice with beetroot salad and variety of pickles. For dessert the board served the authentic Vorn, another mangalorean delicacy. There was Chicken curry and pork bafat for non-veg lovers. For drinks there was lemonade and sangria. In addition to all of this the board also served vanilla ice cream. A big round of applause to the catering team of Kishore Fernandes, Vinitha Sequeira, Sylvia Deo, Sharon Aranha, Shaila Prabhu , Joshila Nazareth and Pearl D’Souza.
.
After lunch the MC started off with a few spot games to get everyone to settle down and participate. This was followed by all kids singing the hymn “Ma Ma Mary” led by Shaila Prabhu and Guitarist Anil Prabhu. Some of the kids held jingles to make it more musical. This was then followed by a game that taught the kids a lot about the Monthi Fest and traditions led by Minoo Jha . Minoo gave the kids beautiful presents for participation.
It was now time for full participation from our members so the dance floor was opened with music by our very talented DJ and tech person Jason Sequeira. The opening dance was led by Vance Mendonca and Komal Gaur along with other kids who practiced for the event and it was encouraging to see other members join in. It was nice to see more and more members join as the dance progressed into baila music.
President Betty Fernandes gave a closing speech where she thanked the priest, members, volunteers and the board members. The board then served everyone with tea and snacks.
The entire event was beautifully captured by NCMA photographer Adrian D’Souza. The photos can be viewed here.
This was a beautiful celebration of the nativity of Mother Mary and the event was liked and appreciated by all those present. Highlights of the event can be found here. The NCMA board was grateful to everyone who came forward to make the event a great success.
Anyone wanting to join NCMA can do so by going to 'contact us' section on the NCMA website https://usncma.wixsite.com/northern-california and sending their details.