Spring Spirit

Goa kick-starts Spring with frolicsome Carnival and colourful Shigmo. But the crowd-pulling float parades being absent this year much of the glamour has been lost and tourists and hoteliers were rather disappointed.

IN recent years, the crowded scenes attracted by the float parades is all that people witness in the name of Goa's famed Carnival and Shigmo. However, the BJP-led government of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar decided to do away with the celebrations by not sponsoring the celebrations and hence everyone missed the crowd-pulling float parades. The money saved by not sponsoring the Carnival and Shigmo, will be sent for the rehabilitation of the earthquake victims in Gujarat. But the scene left the tourist and the hospitality sector with long faces.

CARNIVAL

Besides the float parades, quite a few dances were comanised in the main cities and even in some villages during the three days of Carnival, the Festa de Lequesbeing billed as the show of the season.

The ethnic Carnival, which is a bit different, still lives on, particularly, in South Goa with the typical khell (folk theatre). Over the years, the khell troupe, however, has shifted their act from performing on the plain ground in the village to the raised stage. But the melodramatic stuff, with liberal doses of comedy, still manages to pull crowds. Perhaps people don't accompany the khell troupe all over the village like they did once. But innumerable khells are staged in the theatres in Panjim, Margao and in Goa's southern villages. One just needs to peep into the pages of the dailies to check the ads of countless plays offered.

The glimpses of the traditional Carnival were witnessed in Mapusa too in days gone by. People would march to Altinho near the old slaughter house. There is a small structure built there. There would be a princess, guarded by angels, who had to fight the deuchar (devil) striving to spirit her away. They would also engage mock fights with powder bullets and then proceed to the Holy Cross chapel, popularly known as the "Suis Kopel" at Angod in Rajvaddo, near the Alankar theatre. At this chapel is celebrated till today the feast of the Holy Cross on the first day of the Carnival.

Of course, the once exciting programme has since sobered down to novenas and High Mass at the small chapel. Of course, the khajemkar (sweetmeat sellers) and guys selling the special Carnival caps put up their stalls at the busy lane. The colour and the design of the caps has changed and they are donned by the small kids.

SHIGMO

Celebrate as you wish the Carnival, but the Hindu counterpart of Carnival, which is the exhuberant Shigmo, hasn't lost an iota of its original colour and vibrancy. The Shigmo celebrations last for about seven days in Goa's villages. They begin with the long pole called "Holi". Just nearer midnight of a full moon, the menfolk take it dancing merrily along the road, to the beat of the dhol-taso (the traditional drum set) and cymbals. The boisterous chaps holler at the top of their voices "Holli re, Holli", ululate and even shout bad words and few would complain on that day.

The Holi is taken to the religious spot at the sacred place called the mandd and stuck into a hole. Virtually, every day the boys visit it with the drums, which reverberate in the villages till the final day called the Dulhatt. The first and the last days are meant for the splashing of colours. The colourful events are called "gulal" and those at the Fatorpa temple in South Goa and the Shantadurga temple at Dhargalim figure among the most prominent events during the Shigmo season.

The Carnival and Holi usher in the Goan Spring, which varies vastly from Spring elsewhere. The days become warmer. It's also the start of the cashew season and freshly available Ur'rak adds so much pep to the colourful celebrations.