Celebrations, family reunion mark Monti Fest Day in city

MANGALURU: Thousands of Christians from Dakshina Kannada celebrated Monti Fest or Nativity of Blessed Virgin Mary, on Thursday.
The celebrations across the Diocese of Mangaluru and Udupi started with the offering of special prayers at churches and blessing of 'Novem'- paddy corn, blessed by the priest. Paddy is also a sign that most Christians in coastal Karnataka have eked out their living through agriculture.Monti Fest is celebrated after nine days of novena, during which kids shower flowers on the statue of Blessed Virgin Mary. On the last day, a small procession is taken out from a grotto close to the church, after which solemn festival mass is offered.
On the feast day, most of the churches prayed specially for the safety of the girl child safety and to curb increasing violence on women.
A numbers of vegetarian dishes are prepared and served to the family members in a traditional way. Some of these dishes are prepared specially only on this day. To keep the Indian traditions alive, the food is served on plantain leaf and all family members sit down on the floor to enjoy the food.
"On these day, I have cooked around 11 vegetable dishes including payasam in a traditional way," said Winnifred D'Souza, a home-maker. Allu Dentte (colocesia leaf with Mangalurean masala and spinach stems), sprouted moong dry dish, bitter gourd, ladies finger curry, cowpea, ivy gourd with grated coconuts and chilli, moode, sanna (Idli) and vorn (paysam) are some of the dishes that are prepared.
Apart from the celebrating among the Christian families, people from other communities are also invited to share the joy and to send out a message of communal harmony. The festival celebrates the first crop of the year like other harvest festivals in India (Onam, Pongal and Lohri).