Goa - Festivals @ whatisindia.com

The feast of Bonderam is celebrated on the fourth Saturday of August every year at Divar Island, 12-km from Panjim. The name Bonderam revolves around the involvement of flags which in itself is an interesting story. Frequent disputes which occurred between two wards (section of the village) - Piedalda and Sao Mathias - over property matters often led to bloody duels, and sometimes death. Subsequently, the Portuguese introduced a system of demarcation of boundaries with flags of various nations.

The rival groups, however, knocked down the demarcation flags sometimes with stones. Today, in a parody of the past, this is commemorated with a "Fotash" flight (toy weapon of bamboo stem) and berries are used as missiles in a mock fight between rival groups to knock down an offending flag.

On the day, a carnival ambience is created. Each ward of the village has a float at the parade. Though sponsored by business houses, the floats have an unmistakable local flavor. On the day of the feast, the quaint land of Divar, away from the hustle and bustle of Panaji, is agog with excitement.

Melodious music drifts from the village to mainland Old Goa - once the hub of Portuguese Goa - even before the crack of dawn on the Saturday. At noon people begin trickling into the village. By the evening the trickle is a deluge. An expectant crowd assembles along either side of the main through fare of the village. The tempo is set by lands and lasses wielding "fotashes" engaging themselves in mock battles. The gaily colored floats accompanied by colorfully dressed youngsters make a pretty picture.

CARNIVAL

The word 'Carnival' is derived from the Latin 'Carnem levare' that literally means 'putting away the flesh'. This is the most colorful and unforgettable festival that is celebrated by the Catholics with gay abandon for three days preceding the Lent period. The Lent starts on a Wednesday, and so Carnival takes place from the previous Saturday night to early Wednesday morning. During these three days, Goa is gripped by the pulsating rhythm of guitars and the lilt of folk songs. The revelers in their colorful improvised fancy dresses, dance and sing in the streets, with King Momo, Lord of the Carnival, presiding over the scene.

The main function of the Carnival on the first day, i.e. Fat Saturday evening, starts with a mammoth procession of floats of a variegated pageant of color and gaiety, headed by King Momo. The celebrations include attacking each other in a spirit of mirthful mock battles with colored water (using Chiknoli) and stuffed cartridges (called Cocotes). The roads are littered with colored powder. Crackers exploded with gay abandon, with buntings and decorations galore, with colored streamers being flown everywhere.

The most important item of the Carnival celebrations was the play-cum-dance-song of Mussoll. The folk-plays or Khell or Fell are a special feature of the Carnival celebrations in Chandor, where distinctive songs known as Intruzachim Geetam or Fella-Gitam are sung by the walking-plays that go about the village, with accompaniment of musical instruments, like an improvised operetta. It helps to bring the villages together in a spirit of understanding and amity. The Fell spares no one in its biting criticism and caricature of prominent characters.

Some clubs and hotels of the five-star variety hold dances during the Carnival days beginning with Sabado Gordo in Goa where revelers appear in gaudy costumes and masks and let their hair down in gay abandon, with booze and carousing galore.

CHRISTMAS

Like elsewhere in the world, December 25 is celebrated in Goa with traditional joy and gaiety. In fact, it cuts across the limits of the Church to spill over into the streets for all to participate. It is a time for merry-making and exchanging gifts in Goa. The market places are all embellished with tinsel and buntings and people masquerading as Santa stalk customers, particularly children with gifts in the big cities. Decorated and glittering Christmas trees are all over the place. In Goa, Christmas is celebrated in the European way with the celebrations revolving around the family. The traditional Goan characteristics are also imbibed in the celebrations. A week or 10 days before Christmas, a family group or a village group with one among them dressed as Santa go carol singing with a box to raise funds. These funds are normally contributed towards a meal for the poor or for the lepers. This is in keeping with the spirit of the occasion that is to share with the less privileged. On Christmas Eve, a star made of wood and kite paper by the family members is hung outside the house.

The typical Christmas sweet in Goa is the Christmas fruit-cake made of dry fruit and wine, which is a recipe borrowed from the West. There are a host of local sweets of which the most popular are neureos (stuffed dry fruit and coconut rounds), dodol (coconut and cashew squares) and coconut nest which is strips of tender coconut dipped in sugar and put like a birds nest on to decorative kite paper and bebinca. These sweets are traditionally made at home and sent in little decorative baskets to relatives and friends a week in advance.

On Christmas Eve, all gather at house of the the senior-most member of the family, for a traditional dinner that offers an opportunity to strengthen family bonds. The traditional dinner consists of turkey or chicken, pork sorpotel and pulao. A pork dish is a must. Dessert consists of fruit-cake and wine. Around 11.30 p.m., the family winds its way for Midnight Mass.

The entire atmosphere is one of festivity and much like Diwali, Goa is lit up with Christmas stars and lights that come on to herald the birth of Christ and the peal of bells rent the air. Christmas day is by comparison very silent. It is a day spent with family together in the comfort of ones home. There are gifts for all the member of the family and even the visiting relatives get gifts kept under the Christmas tree. It is a time to reinforce bonds that may have gone astray or been neglected during the course of the year.

Festivities and visiting people go on even after Christmas, sometimes 10 days beyond Christmas. On New Years night, children sit with an effigy of an old man, much like a scarecrow on the road, and collect funds from passers-by. They burn him at midnight, which is symbolic of putting the past behind and ushering in the new year or the future. The Christmas season ends officially on January 6, which is the Feast of the Magi or the three kings who came to pay obeisance to the infant Jesus. There is a Church service and a symbolic procession of the three kings at three places in Goa.

COLVA FAMA

Colva, a picturesque South Goa village is well known for the crystal white sands of Colva beach. However much before the Colva beach became a tourist destination, the village was known far and wide for the centuries old 'Fama' or the feast of Menino Jesus (Infant Jesus) celebrated traditionally with pomp and solemnity at the Our Lady of Mercy Church.

According to local legend, the statue of Menino Jesus was found off the coast of Mozambique in the 17th century by some shipwrecked sailors led by Fr. Bento Ferreira, a Jesuit missionary. Fr Bento was later posted to Colva in 1668. He had a special altar built and had the statue grandly enthroned on it.

A few years later, the annual Fama began. The statue was kept for public veneration during the Fama as huge crowds turned to seek its blessings. However due to political upheavals in Portugal, the religious orders in Goa were suppressed forcing the Jesuits to flee to the Rachol Seminary, carrying along with them the statue.

The Colva villagers tried to get back the statue but to no avail. Finally they decided to make a replica of the original. Their only possession a golden ring, believed to have been found after it slipped off the original statue, was mounted on the new statue.

Today, this statue is securely concealed in a triple locked vault. Celebrated annually on the second Monday of October, the Colva Fama has continued to draw crowds from all over the world. On the day of the Fama all roads leading to Colva are packed with devotees in all their traditional finery. They start walking towards the church from as early as 5 a.m.

There is a concelebrated High Mass at 6 a.m.. The altar which houses the miraculous statue of the Infant Jesus remains locked with a shutter, on which an image of the Infant Jesus is nicely painted, pulled down over it. The crown, flag, shoes and ornaments of the statue are all made of gold and the robe inlaid with gold and precious stones.

Only after the Mass ends, the vicar and the president of the Confraria, expose the statue after unlocking the shutter. The statue is then brought down from its silver pedestal and handed over to the main celebrating Priest who carries it in a procession around the church. The statue is then taken to the main altar and all the finery removed and then cleansed and a white robe is draped over it. The patiently waiting faithful are then allowed to kiss the statue. Donations in the form of cash and kind - even gold - candles and wax models of different parts of the human anatomy pour in throughout the day as presented by the devotees. The masses continue through the day in the Church courtyard.

FEAST OF ST FRANCIS XAVIER

The body of St Francis Xavier lies in a silver casket in the Church of Bom Jesus in Goa. Ceremonies to honor his death are performed on December 3, the day he was buried.

St Xavier was a great Catholic missionary, who preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the people of Asia. Born in Spain on April 7, 1506, he came to India with the Portuguese Viceroy of Goa in 1543, and immediately undertook the task of influencing the Goan people. Though he did not master the local language, he took the help of Goan scholars and translated the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the Ave Maria. He baptized the inhabitants of 30 villages. Xavier commanded awesome political power. He was able to secure pensions, even for the petty princes who converted to Christianity, from the King of Portugal.

It was in the Sancian Island, about 10-km from the mainland of China that he died of fever on December 2, 1552. According to legend, some Portuguese merchants found him just before he breathed his last. They performed his last rites on the following day, and buried him in a box partly filled with unslaked lime. A few months later, a Jesuit brother disinterred the body and discovered, to his surprise, that it had not decomposed at all. He cut a finger from the body and was astonished to see blood ooze out. When this was reported to the Vatican, the title of Saint was conferred upon Xavier.

The body was interred in a cemetery in Malacca for about two years before it was brought to its final resting place in Goa. Until then, even though the body had not been anointed, it was found to be only slightly affected by death. Every ten years until 1994, on the anniversary of his death, St Xavier's body would be brought out from a silver casket and kept in a glass case, with the feet exposed, for all to see and worship. For the exposition, people from all over India would flock to the church for a glimpse of the saint. The last and final exposition was held in 2004. Since the condition of the body had deteriorated visibly, it was decided by the church that the body would not be displayed anymore.

FEAST OF ST PETER & ST PAUL

The Christian festival of Saint Peter and Saint Paul held on June 29 every year, by the fishing community particularly in Bardez taluka.

The fishermen in the villages along the northern coast of Goa celebrate the festival in the monsoon. They tie their boats together to form rafts which serve as makeshift stages. On this stages miniature models of Chapels or Churches are erected. After a church service in the morning and a large feast, the festival of Sangodd is held. Tiatrs (local drama theatre), folk dances and music are performed before an audience who watch from the banks of the river.

The Sangodd in the villages of Candolim and Sinquerim are well known. Here the rafts carrying the models slowly make their way down the river upto the Chapel of St. Peter. At each stop, firecrackers are set off and the entertainment on the stage begins.

The origin of this celebration is unique to Goa. It is the celebration of the fisher folk community because St. Peter was a fisherman.

FEAST OF THREE KINGS

Perched high on a hill in Quelim, Salcete, stands the tiny centuries-old stone chapel of Nossa Senhora dos Remedios or Our Lady of Cures. The incomparably beautiful statue of the Madonna is seen holding the Child Jesus in open arm and a small vase in the other, which has in it the panacea for all ills.

The Lady of the Mount is famous for her wondrous protection and miracles and is also reputed to be the giver of children to sterile mothers. On the day of the festivity She is covered with jewellery as tokens of gratitude by Catholics and Hindus alike for favors and blessings received. The chapel as well as the image are very ancient and are steeped in historical associations, traditions, and legends.

Every year thousands of devotees congregate at the stone chapel of Nossa Senhora dos Reis to offer prayers of thanksgiving to Our Lady of Immaculate Conception - a lighthouse of faith and courage to its people. High mass is offered on the day of Epiphany and thereafter there is rejoice and partying.

Some say the Jesuits built this place of worship during the religious persecution that raged Goa during the time of the Marques de Pombal. This fact seems to be borne out by the subterranean passage found in the chapel that terminates about a mile away in a huge boulder with six secret openings through which, it is believed, that the faithful entered. These caves were later used by tigers and panthers as lairs.

However, some historians state that the site now occupied by the Chapel of Remedios was once the site of a Hindu temple. Perhaps that's the reason why a large number of Hindu devotees make the yearly pilgrimage to the Mount to worship the Madonna, bringing with them offerings of flowers, incense, and candles.

The dramatic climax is reached on January 6, the day of the Feast of the Magi, when three little boys ranging in years from 8 to 10 are selected as kings from the three neighboring villages of Quelim, Cansaulim and Arrosim to bring their gifts of gold, myrrh, and frankincense to the Child-God. On the Mount, surging and trampling devotees congregate on the hill's edge to watch the three kings from three different routes make their appearance. Mounted on white horses, they make their way up, in their royal garments elaborately embroidered in gold and silver, a crown studded with glittering stones on their heads, and a whole procession of relatives, friends, retinues bringing up the rear. Each procession is preceded by a brass band played as loud music and bursting of crackers all the way up. The crowd in a frenzy of enthusiasm hails the Magi with a deafening ovation. The kings dismount from their white steeds, and are solemnly led to the special seats of honor reserved for them to assist at the High Mass.

A curious feature of the festival on the Mount is that after midday, nobody stays back anywhere near by. The staggering and swelling crowds disappear as mysteriously as the huge giant fair, within a few hours, while the flags, buntings and other fanciful decorations are all removed. Since no priest consents to reside in the parochial house, the chapel is closed till the next annual feast. During the year should any devotee wants a mass of thanksgiving to be said at the shrine, he goes up with the priest. The reason for this fear of the Mount is the belief that the place is haunted by Shivaji and his army who after dusk make their appearance with flares that light up the whole countryside around, which echoes to their marching feet.

GOOD FRIDAY CELEBRATION

This is one of the Christian celebrations, observed in sincere reverence by the Goan Catholics. It takes place at the end of the period of Lent which lasts for 40 days in February and March, beginning with Ash Wednesday. Good Friday is followed by Easter Sunday.

A special mass and procession take place in almost every church in Goa, but the most spectacular celebration which takes place in Panaji, is in the square of the Church of Mary Immaculate Conception. Large crowds in formal clothes, gather in the square to participate in the mass and the Way of the Cross.

The priests celebrate the mass in Konkani, describing the sufferings of Lord Jesus Christ. After the mass, the special crucifix, which until this time has been kept from view, is now uncovered before the crowd for veneration. The ceremony of the Way of the Cross takes place as a re-enactment of the path Jesus took on Mount Calvary before the Crucifixion. An image of Jesus carrying the large wooden cross is taken in a procession from the Mary Immaculate Church premises, through the nearby streets by the clergymen dressed in special clothes. The people follow the procession in two parallel lines, in front and behind the statue. The solemn procession is watched by hundreds of onlookers, Hindu and Christian standing at the roadside. A band playing suitably somber music accompanies the procession which slowly winds its way through the main streets in Panaji before returning to the church.

KONSACHEM FEST

This feast is celebrated at the unusually named Our Lady of The Snows Church at Raia, a small village near the town of Margao in Salcete taluka. The feast is known locally as Konsachem Fest after the sheaves (konsa) of rice harvest which are cut at the time of the celebration. The local church here, also known as the Raia Church, is the scene of this feast which draws hundreds of Hindu and Christian devotees from all round the state.

The Church has a sickle which is said to have been specially sent across to Goa, by the Pope in Portuguese times. The local parish priest cuts the first sheaves of the season's rice harvest from the nearby fields. He also gives blessings for a rich harvest for future seasons and the sheaves are then distributed among the devotees present. These are then used by the devotees to prepare some rice dish at their home.

The feast is also celebrated with all pomp and splendor at the Taleigao Church near Panaji. Here some of the sheaves which are cut by the local priest are also sent to the Governor of Goa and the Archbishop of Goa Diocese as a symbol of love, good wishes and prosperity. As per tradition, a football tournament is held at the local grounds among the clubs of the surrounding areas.

MARGAO FEAST

Modern Margao is South Goa's commercial hub and has grown from a small market town into one of Goa's largest cities. Here one finds a mix of everything modern and traditional, from bullock carts to the latest in automotive design. The Church of the Holy Spirit was first constructed in 1564 by the Jesuit missionaries. It was destroyed following the Muslim invasion of the Salcette in 1571, and construction was begun again only after the area had been firmly secured and funds raised.

The Church of the Holy Spirit celebrates its Feast Day sometime in the final weeks of May, and in additional to a high mass on Sunday, an outdoor fair continues for the next five or six days. Scheduled prior to the onset of the rains, people come from all over Goa to buy their provisions of dry fish, household items, spices, furniture, and many other products. As customary at any feast, there are an abundance of bright - orange 'sweet-meat' stalls lined up on streets. This feast is the last major festival prior to the onset of monsoons and is famous throughout Goa.

PROCESSION OF SAINTS, GOA VELHA

Goa Velha, the location for the famous Procession of the Saints at St. Andrew's Church, has a rich history which began long before the arrival of the Portuguese. Now a sleepy village, Goa Velha, the former properous city of the Kadamba Dynasty, hosts the renowned Procession of the Saints on the first Monday of Easter week. This tradition began in the 17th century by the Franciscan Order in an attempt to boost the moral values and pious behaviour of the community and inspire them to take to their hearts the teachings of Jesus Christ. A life-size richly decorated statues of saints, martyrs, kings, and queens were carried in palanquins on the shoulders of Native Christians. In 1835, the event was banned by the Marquis of Pombal and many statues were destroyed. The celebration began again only towards the end of the 19th century.

On the Sunday preceding the Palm Sunday, a rather unique procession leaves the Church of Goa Velha and winds its way through the streets of the village sandwiched between Siridao and Pilar. The traditional procession of saints draws thousands of Christian devotees. It's probably the biggest event in the village. The procession of the Saints draws hundreds of people from neighboring villages around Goa Velha.

The lifesize statues of 31 saints are kept for veneration for three days in the church after the procession. Goa is the only other place besides Rome that such a procession is held since centuries.

SÃO JOÃO

São João is the feast of St John the Baptist on June 24th. On this day young men around Goa jump into wells to retrieve gifts thrown in by villagers. The festivals takes place at the beginning of Monsoon season in Goa and people of all ages jumping into wells, streams and ponds. In Siolim, the village in north Goa's Bardez taluka, colorful boat races are organized on this day.

Christian scripture tells us of John the Baptist leaping for joy in his mother, Elizabeth’s womb when she was told of Jesus’ birth. John, the Baptist later went on to baptize Jesus in the river Jordan. The well is considered to be a representation of Elizabeth’s womb and a jump into it a sign of joy for the birth of Christ.

São João, like any other Goan feast has that captivating spirit of merriment, colour and tradition. People dressed in colorful outfits from several villages meet near a stream front in carnival-colored boats and floats. It is celebrated with great fervour and gusto, particularly in Siolim, Anjuna, Candolim, Calangute and Assagao. The highlight of the day is the Sangodd, on which people parade singing Mandos and religious hymns.

People, especially the newly married or those with a new-born (where new means before after June 24 of the previous year, that is the previous Sao Joao) gather with the dali and gifts containing seasonal fruits like moussrad mango (a Goan variety of mango), pineapples, jackfruits and a bottle of feni.

TOUXEACHEM FEST

The magnificent Church of St Anne also known as the Santana Church locally is the scene of the very unusual feast every year. The Church located at Talaulim in Tiswadi taluka, is dedicated to St Anne and the feast is celebrated on July 29.

Touxeachem Fest (in Konkani) literally translates as the Cucumber Feast in English. Besides the huge number of devotees from all around Goa, a large number of newly married couples is in attendance. The couples come to the Church to seek the blessings of St Anne, who herself was blessed with a child after 40 years of barren life. They buy cucumbers from local vendors at the feast and offer them at the feet of St Anne and carry them home to eat.

At most feasts in Goa, there are numerous stalls selling the traditional sweetmeats and other items such as grams etc. At the feast of St Anne, the largest number of vendors sell only cucumbers which are in high demand by the devotees. Another fascinating feature of this feast is the fairly large number of Hindu devotees who come to celebrate the feast and pay their respects to St Anne. Even while the mass is going on, a continuous line of Hindu devotees wait their turn to touch the statue of St Anne.

Reference:
http://www.goatourism.org/

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