By Rons Bantwal

September 8 is the birth day of Mother Mary. The people of coastal Karnataka celebrate this day as the birth day of “Mother Nature” (Mother of Jesus Christ) and this is the tradition of ancient times. This feast gives importance to agriculture so Tulu people call it as “KuralParba” and Kannada people call it as “TeneHabba”. All Christians from all over the world celebrated this feast with delight and in India this is celebrated with the traditional way of this land. Here this is the festival of “new meal” and in Tulunad this is known as “Monti Feast”. This is the remembrance, worship and thanks giving feast to mother Mary. Mother Mary is the holy goddess of this feast.

Churches decorateand worship the idol of “mother Mary” and children offers flowers for eight days during the novena and prepare for the celebration of feast. On the day of Monti feast the decorated statue of Mother Mary will be carried in a procession along with green vegetables, fruits and bunches of paddy. After the mass, father distributes the blessed paddy spikes and candles to the devotees. The children will get sugar cane.

After receiving the spikes from the church, devotees come to their homes along with other family members. Later they mix up the new rice from the spikes with a sweet dish “kheer” and everyone have that sweet dish. This is the traditional way of celebrating Monti feast. Monti fest is a family feast; all family members sit together and have food together.