MKCA Chicago celebrates Monti Fest

Madhu Patel 

CHICAGO: The Mangalorean Konkan Christians Association of Chicago (MKCA) celebrated the Nativity of Blessed Virgin Mary (birth of Mother Mary) at St. Hubert Catholic Churchin Hoffman Estates, a Chicago suburb. This is the 6^th annual Monti Fest celebration by this Association.
This event signifies the pure and simple love and devotion of Mother Mary. It also signifies unity and nurturance among the kith and kin by offering the new crop to the Creator and partake it with family. This celebration is similar in its concept to Onam in Kerala and Thanksgiving in USA.
The program began with a procession of celebrants, especially children carrying flowers to express their love, respect and devotion to the birth of Mother Mary, and culminated in front of the church altar.
Holy Eucharist was celebrated by the main celebrant Fr. Cyril Fernandes. In his Homily, Fr. Henry Sequeira narrated how the Monti Fest was celebrated as one of the harvest festivals back in Mangalorean Diocese. He stressed that priests and clerics are equal and none of them are superior.  He said we have to accept mistakes made by some priests and we should not keep them on a pedestal and accept them as just human beings.
congratulated all the participants for keeping the Mangalorean culture and customs alive in a far away land of USA.  The MKCA Choir members, under the leadership of Concy Mesquita gave a special touch by singing hymns exclusively in Konkani.
President Vissia D’Souza welcomed the attendees for their participation in this family feast. Fr. Cyril, blessed the new crop (Novem), which was produced in India and all the participants partook the “Novem in Roce”.  The program compeer Dr. Austin Prabhu requested all the participants to savor the taste of Mangalorean snacks and the open bar.

The attendees irrespective of their age were excited to participate in games conducted by Sarita D’Souza.  The Musical Chairs for children winners were Rayaan D’Souza and Jenna Godlyn D’Souza.  The winners of the Musical Chairs with a Twist were Ashlyn Mathias and Ivan S. Nidhir.  Program Chairperson James Saldanha thanked the Parish Priest of St. Hubert’s Church, Rev. Fr. Mike Scherschel for his gracious help in providing venue for this celebration. He thanked the families who cooked delicious food for this program and all the members who helped in arranging this event.  She thanked all the attendees for their gracious presence and for making this celebration a memorable one.

All the first timers for this program and the members who prepared mouth watering dishes were recognized by inviting them to the podium.
was a wonderful bonanza of vegetable menu consisting 11 items along with Vorn and ice cream for the dinner to relish on.  All this was home prepared by the MKCA family members.  The attendees were happy and content to have these Mangalorean dishes.
participants enjoyed to take over the floor and dance till they dropped to the tunes of Konkani, Hindi, Spanish and English songs provided by D.J. Queenie Mendonca.