With rosaries held tightly and hearts filled with sorrow, every step becomes more burdensome as we carry the weight of remorse, knowing that someone else has paid the price for our sins.
March 29, 2024, was observed as Good Friday and like every other parish, Panjim’s Our Lady of Immaculate Conception Church had its annual penitential procession. The procession, which begins at the Church, wends its way through the streets of Panjim in prayerful solidarity before returning to the Church.
The path it takes is illuminated, not just by the lights of the shops along the road, but by the candles that refuse to be extinguished even by the strongest gust of wind. This, perhaps, has more to do with the devotion with which they have been lit, than with mere air.
The window sill of the Damodar Kashinath Naik general store still has melted wax from the previous day. “We light candles outside on Good Friday, it’s a tradition,” says Kashinath, who shares that the shop is almost a hundred years old.
“I’m not too sure, but this tradition is believed to have been started in 1960. My father and the elders used to light candles on Good Friday as the procession passed by, and we do the same even today,” he adds.
Just besides this store is Café Real, one of the oldest tea stops in Panjim and there are candles there too.
“This began in 1946,” says Pundalik Parab, who has been a loyal employee to Café Real for the past 25 years.
According to him, the candles are lit every year to venerate Mother Mary because the owner of the Café is believed to have been granted graces by her and the candles are his little way of saying thank you.
The scent of sweet-smelling flowers fills the air as the procession takes a turn at the M S B Caculo building. ‘Since 1910,’ the board reads.
“This house is 120 years old, and my mum who got married into the house 50 years ago, has been offering flowers ever since,” reminisces Shweta Caculo. Keeping up with her family tradition, Shweta waits for Jesus with flowers in her hand as the procession passes by her house, every year.
“We arrange five different types of local seasonal flowers such as Aboli, Surangi and Mogra,” she smiles.
If you look up at the Caculo House, the verandah is always lit up with candles every time the procession passes on Santos Passos and Good Friday.
“In the past, there was not much lighting so we used to light candles on the verandah. Eventually, we put lights and switch those lights along with lighting a few packs of candles,” she explains.
Her beautiful light-coloured eyes light up as she narrates an incident from the time the Santos Passos procession took place during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Around this time last year, I was at home in Altinho and got a call from my mother asking me to come see my father who was feeling unwell,” began Shweta who is a dentist by profession.
“I got down the slope at around 6.15pm and was shocked to see that the procession was coming down the steps of the Church. We did not even know that it was Santos Passos that day because of Covid!” she narrates.
The route of the procession had been cut short that year and was not supposed to pass by the Caculo House.
“I said Oh my God! The procession is happening today and we don’t have flowers!” It was almost 7pm, where would I get flowers at such short notice? She asks a rhetorical question.
“I rushed to the Mahalaxmi Temple, the roads were jam packed,” she says. All the ladies selling flowers had left for the day, except for one who was just winding up. She had her last two fatio (garlands) of Mogra flowers, “They are Jesus’ favourite, no?” Shweta flashes a smile.
She didn’t know if she would reach back to give him the flowers in time, but, “you won’t believe it! The procession had just reached the mid-landing of the church, where the cross is,” she remembers vividly. Shweta gave Jesus the flowers that day.
Looking back, there were so many ways that she could have missed the procession. “We didn’t know that it was Santos Passos, I only got out of the house because my mother called, there was only one lady waiting with the flowers at the temple, I was not sure if I would reach there in time – but Jesus waited there for me,” she says with gleaming eyes.
The procession took a different turn that year, Jesus waited for Shweta outside His house because she could not wait for Him, outside hers.