When people walk with kings

With the Christmas season drawing to a close on January 6, Goa is preparing for a unique celebration of the Feast of the Three Kings at Cansaulim, Chandor, and Reis Magos

SANJEEV V. SARDESAI

Goa is one of India’s best tourism destinations. While visitors to the state tend to immediately gravitate towards the beaches, Goa’s treasures lie hidden in its villages and hinterlands. The communally harmonious cultural pattern of the local Goan, offers a plethora of festivities, which are unique, while encompassing all its peoples, irrespective of caste, creed or faith.

Many of its festivities celebrated by villagers are full of colour, vigour, while warmly accepting visitors, as guest spectators. Every festival, besides bonding the people with its land and Mother Nature, brings together a community with harmony.

One such festivity is held on January 6, every year. As Goa gears up to bid farewell to the Christmas season, the Feast of Epiphany or the Feast of the Three Kings is celebrated with great pomp in Cansaulim, Chandor, and Reis Magos – a village named after the “Three Kings”. The enactment of the Biblical story of the visit of the three wise kings to Baby Jesus, in the manger bringing gifts, is one of the most spellbinding events which every tourist in Goa must head for.

In Reis Magos, the procession has three ‘kings’ walking up the regal stairway of the Three Kings Church, while at Chandor and Cansaulim there is a touch of reality, as the ‘kings’ with crowns, arrive on horse-back to attend the Feast Mass.

The most famous of these three festivities is the one held at Cansaulim-Cuelim. The festivity held here involves participation of three South Goan coastal villages of Arossim, Cansaulim, and Cuelim. The selection of the three ‘kings’ – youth in the age group of seven – 12 years from each of these three villages – is an accepted traditional system of a chronological roster. In all, there are about 70 families in the village, whose child
qualifies to enact the role of the ‘king’; and once the family participates, their next turn comes after almost 70 years later.

The three villages, which share their border, send their ‘king’ riding on beautifully decorated horses and with a flag and a royal umbrella. Each ‘king’ is accompanied by a host of his villagers. At about 7a.m., the three ‘kings’ arrive at a coconut grove in Cuelim called as “Three Kings Bhaat”. The crown worn by these ‘kings’, is then briefly rested on the heads of devotees as ‘blessings’. The Goan touch is added, in the early morning chill, when hot ‘canji’ or ‘local rice porridge’ is served, to all present. The three ‘kings’ on horse-back then climb an almost one kilometre distance uphill, to reach the Chapel of Our Lady or Remedios followed by the devotees. After the religious service, the ‘kings’ descend down from an alternate route. This is in keeping with the Biblical story that the kings avoided a tyrant king and returned home from an alternate route.

The Feast of the Three Kings is one of the ‘not-to-miss’ festivities held in Goa, especially by those holidaying here. In fact, the Department of Tourism, which has now opted for a new direction for tourism, with the theme ‘Tourism Beyond Beaches’, is all set to bring an enhanced charm to this ‘Royal Festivity’. One should not miss an opportunity to walk in the footprints of these ‘royal kings’
in Goa.

(The writer is a hands-on-historian in Goa)