The annual feast of St Anne is celebrated with great pomp on July 26. It’s also observed as Grandparents Day for St Anne was the grandmother of Jesus Christ. Café finds out how two villages, Talaulim and Saligao, are celebrating the feast on a grand scale

 Grandchildren that stay with their grandparents are lucky as they are important sources of life lessons, not only through stories of the past, but also with their general experience and knowledge. Grandparents shower the grandchildren with love and today is the day when you give them a tight hug and say Happy Grandparents Day.

According to the Bible, St Anne and her husband, Joachim, after years of being childless, were visited by an angel who told them that they would conceive a child. Anne promised to dedicate the child to God’s service. Joachim and Anne are believed to have given Mary to the service of the Temple when the girl was three years old. St Anne is hence the patron saint of childless mothers and being the grandmother of Jesus Christ, here feast day is observed as Grandmother’s Day. In Goa, every church celebrates the day with grandchildren praying for their grandparents and some parishes even have small get-togethers after Mass. Children are seen performing songs and dances especially related to their grandmas.

The Church of St Anne at Talaulim, Tiswadi has its own unique celebrations. The feast is famous as Touxanchem Fest (cucumber feast) as childless couples offer cucumber to St Anne, praying in Portuguese, ‘Senhora, tomai pepino, dai me menino’, which translates to ‘Our Lady, take this cucumber and give me a child’. Other prayers offered to St Anne are ‘Senhora, tomai colher, dai me mulher’ which means, ‘Our Lady, take this spoon and give me a wife’ and ‘Senhora, tomai urido, dai me marido’ which says ‘Our Lady, take this Udid dal and give me a husband’.

This year, the feast will be celebrated on July 29, 2018. The novenas are being held everyday with Rosary at 5:10pm followed by mass, sermon and salve. The vespers will be held on July 28at 5:30pm. On the feast day, July 29, there will be masses at 6am, 7:15am and 8.30am. The concelebrated High Mass will be at 10am and evening mass at 4pm. On the feast day, the road from Curca junction entering Santana village will be converted to a one-way for four wheelers and other heavy vehicles from 6:30am to 12 noon.

St Anne Chapel, Muddavaddo, Saligao will be celebrating GrandparentsDay on July 26at 5:30pm, which also marks 175 years of the St Anne Chapel. The celebrations will begin with the Novena at 5:30pm with a special Rosary for frandparents, Litany, followed by Holy Eucharist celebration. Children will present cards to their grandparents as other kids, dressed as angels, will welcome them with roses followed by a short program dedicated to them. A Prayer book ‘Prayer from my Heart’ compiled by Cleta D`Souza will be released at the hands of parish priest Fr Mateus Rodrigues.

‘Prayer from my Heart’ consists of various prayers that are meant for different occasions. “Every prayer uttered is in the name of the Holy Trinity and communicated with love, hope and faith, to be anointed and accepted by God,” says Cleta D’Souza, who wrote the book with the help of the teachings of late Fr Lawrence Mascarenhas. As a child, her grandparents helped her to walk in faith and she believes that St Anne is the mediator in her daily life. A government employee by profession, Cleta serves as a counsellor for women’s issues and conducts various programmes for the upliftment of women.

In today’s world, though the physical distance is shortened through technology, the emotional distance has widened with the family. Children should be encouraged to have a healthy bond with their beloved grandparents, not just on one day dedicated to them, but on a regular basis. They should visit them often and spend quality time with them as these are the small gestures that make a big difference in their mundane life. They have watched their children grow in front of their eyes and now they miss the opportunity to see their grandchildren’s special moments. Also, a fun activity would be to chart a family tree, after all, grandparents are great storytellers and one can find out about their ancestry through them.

• | 26 Jul, 2018, 06:05AM