Pedro Fiesta - Celebrating Together as Pilgrims of Hope

St Peter’s Church Bandra, was bustling with activity on Sunday 29^th June 2025, extravagantly celebrating their Parish feast called PEDRO FIESTA. This began with a Feast mass at 10 am celebrated by their Parish priest Rev. Fr. Luke Rodrigues and concelebrated by the rest of the Parish team. The grand procession into the church comprised of members of the confraternity, PPC members and association heads, the 2 lectors, altar servers and the celebrants, walking to the beats of a brass band played by the Confraternity. The band continued to entertain the crowd after mass as well.

This was followed by a host of activities efficiently organised by a specially formed Parish committee. Fun filled Tele-games were conducted on the Turf, while simultaneously, various absorbing indoor activities were held. These included competitions for Collage, Hair styling, Tattooing, Salad Carving and Fancy dress. The entire parish, comprising of 14 zones, were divided into 4 large teams (Britto, Kostka, Loyola and Xavier) for the purpose of participation in the festivities. Each team provided around 70 participants for the various activities. In the true spirit of inclusiveness, a certain quota was reserved for non-parishioners as well, who frequent St Peters church. The Tele-games began with a vibrant marchpast to the tune of a specially selected theme song “Pedro Fest”. All 4 teams were dressed in their team colours of Red, green, yellow and blue led by their Captains who were the flag bearers. This was followed by a “fun oath” led by the Parish priest.

In addition to the activities, the 4 teams also took on the huge task of preparing and selling light and heavy refreshments to cater to the hungry crowd of around 400 people. Although this was a herculean task for the zone coordinators, it provided the right impetus to instil harmony, community spirit, togetherness and most importantly excitement leading up to the big day! As you would expect the high-quality food, made with love, was devoured by many and sold out in a flash, while the participants relished game after game on the turf. The indoor activities showcased a lot of hidden talent comprising tiny tots right up to nonagenarians! The only person who managed to do justice to both the outdoor and indoor activities simultaneously was the ‘ever supportive and energetic’ parish priest—Fr. Luke, who constantly made his presence felt at both venues. The morning of fun n games ended well into the afternoon, with all winners being awarded prizes, as well as the shimmering trophies being presented to all 4 teams for their overwhelming participation, great camaraderie and overall performance.

It truly was a while since St Peters celebrated their feast on this scale and you bet, it was so satisfying to see so many mixed sections of the Parish celebrate together as Pilgrims of Hope! Needless to say that the Parish is already looking forward to PEDRO FIESTA 2026!

Neil Pais SHC Coordinator St. Peter’s Church, Bandr