Sao Joao Festival 2023; Why Is Well Jumping Ritual Observed By Revellers During Sao Joao ?

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The fun loving North Goa's crowd at Siolim have one more reason to celebrate when June Arrives, especially on 24th. With the arrival of Sao Joao festival people gear up for the festival with fanciful headgears, the brain puzzling attires, and the unleashed reserve of enthusiasm for the festival.

You can see designer crowns inspired by nature, such as fruit-flower-leaf crowns, with the main accent on the water rituals. Wells ponds lakes or any water expanse are their fancy targets in to which they take the Leap of joy.

Children, adults, just about everyone interested in some revelry participate in this well jumping ceremony.This entire festival not only includes well jumping, but also has a fair bit of boating, servings of feni, and the experimenting to hearts content on the deafening gumott rhythms. Gumott is a native goan percussion instrument.

The entire ceremony revolves around these concepts. Firstly gifts are thrown into the wells, immediately followed by young men leaping into the wells to find the gifts which they can keep for themselves.

Significance Of Sao Joao:

There is a biblical background that accompanies this festival. This is also celebrated as the birthday of St. John whose mother Elizabeth was informed by Mary about the coming of Jesus.

St, john who was in the womb of Elizabeth leapt with joy inside his mothers stomach. This festival is inspired by his jumps and is also treated as a celebration of fertility wherein young pregnant mothers seek blessings for safe and normal delivery which is why this festival is christened as the festival of fertility.

It is justly proved to be so by the young mothers. The water represents womb and the leap is the joy that one feels as a result.

The villagers welcome their new sons in law in a grand manner. The next thing is to usher the sons in law to a nearby well or pond to take the leap of joy while wearing a hibiscus and rose hat and a local creeper.

This tradition has a tragic background and is observed in the memory of a hapless son in law who travelled all the way from his hometown to just visit his in laws but was killed on the way due to an accident.

He passed away before he could see this village. So in order to compensate for this loss, the villagers arrange to call all the new sons in law and welcome them in to the community on this feast of St john and allow them to have a good time.