Goa, Aug. 1 -- The staple food of Goa is rice, fish, and curry. Rice cultivation begins in June, the crop reaches maturity by mid-August, and it is ready for harvesting in September and October. Every year, in the last week of July, the elders in the house would often be heard reminding the younger generation to check whether there was enough jaggery and parboiled rice to prepare something sweet at the beginning of August.

It has always been customary to prepare something sweet at home on the first day of August. However, whenever the sweet was made, the children only enjoyed the process of making it and swallowing it down; they never really asked why we did it. Late Mrs. Geneviev Andrade from Ambagim said that the month of August is kno...