Bandra Fair
Encyclopedia
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
starting on the following Sunday after September 8. It is celebrated to commemorate the Nativity of Mary
Nativity of Mary
The Nativity of Mary, or Birth of the Virgin and various permutations, is celebrated as a liturgical feast in the Roman Catholic calendar of saints and in most Anglican liturgical calendars on 8 September, nine months after the solemnity of her Immaculate Conception, celebrated on 8 December...
, mother of Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
, on September 8 at the Mount Mary Church, Bandra
Mount Mary Church, Bandra
The Basilica of Our Lady of the Mount, more commonly known as Mount Mary Church, is a Roman Catholic church located in Bandra, Mumbai. The church is one of the most visited churches in the city. Every September, the feast of St. Mary is celebrated on the first Sunday after 8 September, the birthday...
.
The Bandra Fair is estimated to be around 300 years old. The fair started when a statue of Mother Mary was found floating in the Arabian Sea
Arabian Sea
The Arabian Sea is a region of the Indian Ocean bounded on the east by India, on the north by Pakistan and Iran, on the west by the Arabian Peninsula, on the south, approximately, by a line between Cape Guardafui in northeastern Somalia and Kanyakumari in India...
between 1700 and 1760, which, according to a legend, a Koli fisherman had dreamt about a few years earlier.
History
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Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...
priests from Portugal brought the statue to bandra and constructed the Mount Mary Church
Mount Mary Church, Bandra
The Basilica of Our Lady of the Mount, more commonly known as Mount Mary Church, is a Roman Catholic church located in Bandra, Mumbai. The church is one of the most visited churches in the city. Every September, the feast of St. Mary is celebrated on the first Sunday after 8 September, the birthday...
there. In 1700 Arab pirates disfigured the statue by cutting off the right hand. In 1760, the Mount Mary Church was rebuilt and the statue was substituted with a statue of Our Lady of Navigators from the St. Andrew's Church nearby in Bandra. This statue had an interesting legend. It goes that a Koli fisherman dreamt that he would find a statue in the sea. The statue was found floating in the sea between 1700 and 1760. A Jesuit Annual Letter dated to 1669 and published in the book St. Andrew's Church, Bandra (1616–1966) supports this claim. This was believed to be a miracle by the locals, and the Bandra Fair was started to celebrate this. However, in 1761, the original statue of the Lady of Mount was renovated with a child in her arms and is worshiped at the fair ever since.
Celebrations
Lakh
A lakh is a unit in the Indian numbering system equal to one hundred thousand . It is widely used both in official and other contexts in Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and is often used in Indian English.-Usage:...
s of devotees and pilgrims annually. Many faithful attest to the miraculous powers of the Mount. During the Fair, tens of thousands visit the shrine of Our Lady of Mount. The shrine attracts people from all faiths who pray to the statue for thanksgiving or requesting of favours.
During the Fair, the entire area is decorated with festoons and buntings. Many pitch up stalls selling religious objects like wax idols of Mother Mary along with an assortment of candles shaped like hands, feet and various other parts of the body. The sick people choose one that corresponds to their ailment and light it in Church, with the hope that Mother Mary will consider their appeals for help.
Sweets like Guava cheese, Kadio bodio (tiny stick made of Maida flour
Maida flour
Maida is a finely milled and refined flour of wheat, closely resembling cake flour, and used extensively in making Indian fast food and Indian bakery products such as pastries and breadand sometimes in making traditional Indian breads such as paratha and naan. It is made from the endosperm of the...
dipped in sugar syrup and dried) from Goa
Goa
Goa , a former Portuguese colony, is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Located in South West India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its...
, Mawa peda
Peda
Peda, Pheda or Pera is a sweet from the Indian subcontinent, usually prepared in thick, semi-soft pieces. The main ingredients are khoa, sugar and traditional flavorings, including cardamom seeds, pistachio nuts and saffron. The color varies from a creamy white to a caramel colour...
(thick cookie made using evaporated milk) from Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...
, Halva
Halva
Halva refers to many types of dense, sweet confections, served across the Middle East, South Asia, Central Asia, West Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Malta and the Jewish world.The term halva ,...
from Kerala
Kerala
or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....
, Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...
, and Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
, and the chikki
Chikki
Chikki is a traditional ready-to-eat Indian sweet generally made from groundnuts and jaggery. There are several different varieties of chikki in addition to the most common groundnut chikki. Each chikki is named depending upon the ingredients used...
(a sweet made from groundnuts and jaggery) from Maharashtra
Maharashtra
Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...
are usually found at the stalls during the fair.
Complaints
Recently, there have been many issues raised by the residents residing on the Mount Mary Road in Bandra where the Fair takes place. Some residents have complained that all the public transport is reserved for pilgrims during the fair, leaving the nearby residents with no transport. Due to large scale cooking on the roads, some residents have complained of pollution, while many have complained that mosquitoMosquito
Mosquitoes are members of a family of nematocerid flies: the Culicidae . The word Mosquito is from the Spanish and Portuguese for little fly...
es increase in number during the fair. Also, nearby dental clinics and dispensaries on Mount Mary Road prefer to remain closed during the fair.
Popularity
The Bandra Fair is very popular in Mumbai. Every year, different political parties set up their political banners across the suburb of Bandra inviting the pilgrims to the Fair.The Bandra Fair is also popular across the world especially with the Indian Catholic diaspora. A similar event called the "Bandra Feast" is organized annually by the India Social and Cultural Centre (ISCC) in Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi , literally Father of Gazelle, is the capital and the second largest city of the United Arab Emirates in terms of population and the largest of the seven member emirates of the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi lies on a T-shaped island jutting into the Persian Gulf from the central western...
.
External links
- http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1190520
- http://mountmarybandra.com/the-church/bandra-fair
- http://bandraonline.com/festivals.htm
- http://www.mumbaipluses.com/maladborivaliplus/index.aspx?page=article§id=1&contentid=200809262008092615072520087cc50af§xslt=&comments=true
- http://www.theindiancatholic.com/bandra.asp
- http://www.mumbaipluses.com/andheriplus/index.aspx?page=article§id=1&contentid=2008092620080925132816285722f4e4§xslt=&comments=true
- http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?sectionName=&id=8a7a76ac-5c0e-4be6-aed0-2c32beba4d27&&Headline=Candles%2c+colour+back+at+Mount+Mary
- http://www.mumbai.org.uk/places-of-worship-in-mumbai.html