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This evening at 5 pm , I decided to take Marziya Shakir my 4 year grand daughter to the Mount Mary Fair a friend Salim Mansuri dropped us near Good Luck Restaurant on his bike and I gave the Canon EOS 60D to Marziya Shakir to shoot the feast with her innocence and her childs eyes.
Barring a few frames shot by me I let Marziya shoot the entire story board , the path to the Basilica, the interiors , the street stalls including the back step stalls and Marys Clan , everything I used to shoot I let her shoot, I took a total back seat.
When we entered Chapel Road Marziya was tired she took part in the games at the fair,,and finally at the Bazar she was falling asleep so I carried her home ..
This is Marziyas new series on Mount Mary Fair 2012 ..
About Mount Mary from Wikipedia
The Basilica of Our Lady of the Mount,
from wikipedia
The Basilica of Our Lady of the Mount, more commonly known as Mount Mary Church, is a Roman Catholic church located in Bandra, Mumbai. The church is one of the most visited churches in the city[citation needed]. Every September, the feast of St. Mary is celebrated on the first Sunday after 8 September, the birthday of the Virgin Mary. This is a week long celebration known as the Bandra Fair and is visited by thousands of people.[1]
The church stands on a hillock, about 80 metres above sea level overlooking the Arabian Sea. It draws lakhs of devotees and pilgrims annually. Many of the faithful attest to the miraculous powers of St. Mary. The shrine attracts people from all faiths who pray to Virgin Mary for expressing their gratitude or requesting favours.
During the Bandra Fair, the entire area is decorated with festoons and buntings. Many pitch up stalls selling religious articles, roasted grams, snacks and sweets. Wax figures of the Virgin Mary, along with an assortment of candles shaped like hands, feet and various other parts of the body are sold at kiosks. The sick and the suffering choose a candle or wax figure that corresponds to their ailment and light it in Church, with the pious hope that Mother Mary will consider their appeals for help.
Although the current church edifice is just 100 years old, the history behind the current statue of Our Lady goes back to the 16th century when Jesuit priests from Portugal brought the statue to the current location and constructed a chapel. In 1700 Arab pirates interested in the gilt-lined object held in the hand disfigured the statue by cutting off the right hand.
In 1760, the church was rebuilt and the statue was substituted with a statue of Our Lady of Navigators in St. Andrew's church nearby. This statue has an interesting legend. It goes that a Koli fisherman dreamt that he would find a statue in the sea. The statue was found floating in the sea between 1700 and 1760. A Jesuit Annual Letter dated to 1669 and published in the book St. Andrew's Church, Bandra (1616–1966) supports this claim. The Koli Fishermen call the statue as Mot Mauli, literally meaning The Pearl Mother (Mot= Moti= pearl and Mauli= Mother). Both Hindu[citation needed] and Christian Kolis visit this shrine often giving it a kind of syncretic nature.
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