The 7th annual – Cocoju Fest’15 – the festival of Coconut & Cashew, was held on the 12th of April 2015, at “Ancestral Goa”, Big Foot, in Loutolim. With a strong smell of cashew around this year you saw a huge influx of children more than adults take part. In the activities like: coconut leaf weaving, snake making, broom knotting and ladle-making, the children even made their own little crowns of glory with leaves to be worn for the duration of the day’s events!
The traditional game of “Biyannim” with the cashew nuts brought in the excitement for the prizes were the nuts themselves. Seven tiles, “Lougoreo”, were played using the coconut shells, the coconut breaking showed the power and skill which is another healthy and loud traditional game. The children were taught to roast and break open cashew nuts and also took part in the process of the cashew fruit crushing. Conducted by Miss Karishma Alvares, the events also saw a quiz and drawing contest.
The colorful display panels included step by step fenny making, Grandmother’s reminds using fenny. A demo of the distillation and different types of “Feni”, were on display and also the byproducts like jaggery, vinegar, etc..
The evening saw a new addition, this year, a “Cookery show” by renowned Home-Chef ” Fatima Moniz. Using the cashew apple, a vegetarian display of dishes was prepared, xacuti, miscut, bhakri and caju melado (candied cashew apple) The other events included a painting exhibition of Goan renowned artist Mohan Naik, Manjunaath, Karishma Alvares,Vijay Bhandare, Maendra Alvares, Osborne Carvalho, etc. The exhibition will remain open till the 20th of April 2015 at the Big Foot Art Gallery, at “Ancestral Goa”.
On sale were artifacts and items made from the coconut shell, leaf, etc and also sweets of cashew and coconut besides the books: “One for the road” by Dr. Beulah Pereira and “Cocoju’” the story of the coconut and the cashew” by Maendra Alvares.
