Carnival, rice festival of Chinchinim honour agrarian and cultural riches

Panaji: Chinchinim’s Carnival parade showcased its rich agrarian traditions, just days after Batachem (rice) Fest celebrated the farm revival in a village regarded as a granary of priests, seamen, footballers, tiatrists, and musicians.

One of Salcete’s biggest villages on the Sal river’s eastern bank, Chinchinim, where the fast-disappearing golden jackals still howl, once had six chapels under its Our Lady of Hope Church. Each chapel — now, Sarzora and Dramapur have been elevated as churches — were parishes in their own right.

Styled as Intruz de Chinchinim, one of the floats, Chinchinim Bazaar, portrayed the fish, fruit, and vegetable market. Scores of revellers dressed as bakers, farmers, and fisherfolk — all indigenous multi-skilled workers — danced along the parade route.

A few days earlier, Batachem Fest celebrated a major farm revival nurtured by Goa’s paddyman, Fr George Quadros, that saw Agnelo Furtado of the village regreen about 8 lakh sqm of cultivable land over the past three years.

The fest curated by Goencho Festakar, Marius Fernandes, in his 97th such initiative, was meant to inspire the next generation to protect Goa’s heritage. “Chinchinim was not just a bata koddo (granary) but also a koddo of priests, seamen, footballers, and others,” said Kennedy Pereira, a civil engineer.

Pereira was in conversation with two of the well-known village priests, Fr Felix Lobo, who has also tried to preserve Goa’s culinary traditions, and Fr Victor Ferrao, a writer and priest.

In the years past, when Sarzora was under the Chinchinim parish, the village could boast of scores of priests serving in the Lord’s vineyard. “Almost every house at Sarzora had a priest or even two, or also a nun,” said Felix Gracias, a local.

At the fest, three tarvottis, Merces Velho, Seby Pereira, and A B Viegas narrated the joys, trials, and tribulations of their voyages around the world to the sarpanch and the president of All India Seamen’s Association, Frank Viegas.

Chinchinim, at one stage, had a large population of seafarers. “There were instances where even all six brothers in a family were tarvottis,” Pereira said.