SANGUEM
The traditional ‘Sheni Uzo’ festival was celebrated with great enthusiasm and religious fervour in Molcornem-Quepem between late Sunday night and the wee hours of Monday.
Celebrated on the full moon night before Holi, a large number of people, mostly from the village, head to the remote Mallikarjun Temple to celebrate the festival.
“Incidentally, elders as well as children participate in the Sheni Uzo festival, as the Sheni Uzo has religious importance and is also believed to protect oneself from diseases and other ailments,” informed a villager, Rajesh Molcornekar.
Moreover, people from different faiths also participate in the celebration, which begins late in the night and culminates in the wee hours of the next day.
Manoday Phadte, who witnessed the celebration at Molcornem, said devotees bring in the trunks of arecanut palms, which are cut from the farms of selected families.
“At the start of the rituals, the arecanut palms are normally carried on by selected locals who observe total fast few days before the festival,” said Phadte.
The traditional ritual involves devotees bringing tall arecanut palms (Holika) and placing them in the Maand.
Dry cow dung cakes (Sheni) are then set ablaze (Uzo) and embers of the Sheni Uzo fall on the bodies of devotees, while they dance to the tunes of traditional music.
“Some time later, locals brush dried cowdung cakes (Sheni) lot with fire to create sparks and this is why the festival came to be known as ‘Sheni Uzo’,” informed Phadte.
Another villager and former panch of Molcornem Josinho D’Costa said the locals walk through the fire created by select villagers.
“The Sheni Uzo is also flung on villagers carrying the trunks and those who climb the arecanut palms, which are later placed in the temple premises,” he said.
“There is a belief that the festival is a test of purity and one is not harmed if they pass through the fire as they have not sinned. Incidentally till today, not a single incident of burn injuries or of fire has been reported during the Sheni Uzo festival,” said D’Costa.
At the festival comes to an end, coconuts are broken and prayers are offered to the deity for all the blessings they get from the deity and to seek protection of their village.
