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Bandra Fair attracts large number of visitors

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The Basilica of ‘Our Lady of the Mount’ in Bandra (West) stands on a hillock overlooking the Arabian Sea. It draws over ten lakhs pilgrims annually. During the entire Bandra fair week, over six lakhs people visit the shrine. The shrine attracts people of all faiths and communities all throughout the year. Every year in September, the feast of ‘Our Lady of the Mount’ is celebrated on the Sunday following September 8 till the next Sunday. It is a weeklong fair that attracts lakhs and lakhs of people from all over Mumbai and its suburbs. The weeklong fair will commence this year from September 13 and will conclude on September 20.

During the entire Bandra fair week, all roads and houses in Bandra (West) are decorated with colourful buntings. Many residents even put up stalls selling religious items, black roasted channas (grams) and various kinds of Goan and Mangalorean sweets. The term, Bandra fair refers to the celebrations that are connected with the annual feast of ‘Our Lady of the Mount’ on September 8, known as the ‘Feast of the Nativity (birth) of the Blessed Virgin Mary’. It becomes an important historical event, because with the birth of Mary, comes ‘the dawn of our salvation’, since Mary’s son, Jesus Christ, would be the Saviour of the world. This had already been predicated by many of the Old Testament prophets. If Mary had not consented to the Heavenly Father to be the Mother of Jesus Christ, to bear Him in her womb, then there would have been no redemption and no salvation for mankind. Mary’s answer of saying ‘yes’ to the angel Gabriel at the Annunciation ensured mankind’s deliverance from sin. We do not know the exact date when Mother Mary was born and so September 8th has been fixed by tradition to be her birthday.

Music makes one’s mood merrier. Daily programmes are announced which add to the week-long activities. But it is a pity that a lot of newcomers who have taken accommodation in Bandra (West) have been requesting the Police Commissioner to discontinue the weeklong fair which has been going on since the last 450 years. I would like to inform these people that if they cannot tolerate the crowd and the noise, to better leave Bandra and find accommodation somewhere else. As a former resident of Bandra (West), now residing in Dombivili, I enjoyed the fair when I was a little boy. Even now, every year, I take my wife Shirley and daughter Sweta to the fair. In fact, we spend the entire day enjoying ourselves. We also visit the homes of our relatives and friends residing along the fair area and we are welcomed by these people with open arms.

In the year, 1700, according to historians, the statue of the Virgin Mary was disfigured by the Arab pirates and the right hand of the statue was broken in order to get hold of a gold lined object in her hand, after which it (the statue) was thrown into the Arabian Sea. According to a legend, a Hindu fisherman dreamt that he would soon find a statue of Mother Mary in the sea and his dream came true a few months later.

Jubel D’Cruz

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