Goa’s Sao Joao festival, and why revellers jump into wells and ponds

Context

The Sao Joao festival celebrated on June 24 is in a way a festival of fertility in Mother Nature.

About

Sao Joao festival:

Sao Joao festival is immensely popular in North Goa and is celebrated with amazing enthusiasm and gusto.
The celebrations will include revellers sporting crowns made of fruits, flowers and leaves, and the major draw of the feast is the water bodies – wells, ponds, fountains, rivers – in which the revellers take the “leap of joy”.
Enjoyed by children and adults alike, the festival also includes playing the traditional gumott (percussion instrument), a boat festival, servings of feni, and a place of pride for new sons-in-law.
This festival is marked by young men in Goa jumping into wells to retrieve the gifts thrown in by the villagers.

Significance of Sao Joao:

According to Christian scriptures, when Mary told his mother Elizabeth that she was expecting Jesus, St. John, the Baptist jumped with delight in her womb.
As a result, this celebration is also known since the Festival of Fertility, as young, expectant mothers bring offerings to God in the hopes of having a child.
The leap into the well is thought to symbolise the womb, while the jump represents the pleasure and happiness associated with Jesus Christ’s birth.