Festivals

Siolim's Colourful
SAO JOAO BOAT PARADE

June 24 is a day of bumper celebrations all over Goa being the feast of Sao Joao (St John, the Baptist). It was celebrated throughout the State with the usual gusto. But in the North Goa village of Siolim it is celebrated in quite a grand way every year.

The major event this year was the Sao Joao Traditional Boat Parade in front of the church, where there was plenty of entertainment, like traditional Goan Konkani songs and music by the Pietros band. It was coupled with comic skits and songs by the popular tiatrist couple, Wilson and Sharon Mazarello.

There were prizes galore not only for the participating boat groups, some of which came from Badem, Zhor and Pequeno Chinvar in Anjuna, but also for the vast audience, which occupied every vantage point. The football fever appeared to have spilled handsomely into the float ideas. It was the "Brazil Team" from Pequeno Chinvar, which bagged the first prize. The FIFA team also had their moments in the sun.

Down the palm-bedecked river, at Fernandes vaddo, it was a whole-day affair, which culminated in a beat show with Archies providing the music. Soggy ground and muck notwithstanding, the young crowd danced to glory.

What, however, we enjoy most was the more ethnic version of Sao Joao feast at Gaunsavaddo, in the west of the village. Here the entire vaddo--men, women and kids--join in the exhuberant celebration. It includes the crowning of the cross in the middle of the field, than the bond i.e. music of the traditional Goan percussion instruments--madiem and ghumot--and the cymbals takes over, followed by jumping in the wells.

Old man "Nemo" Anton was still going strong with the madiem despite his age, singing some of the Konkani songs, which have come down the centuries and are not heard anywhere else in Goa. Add to it the delicious dali, which includes jackfruit, mussarad mangoes, pineapples and san'nam.

Sinquerim's Annual Sangodd

"Sangodd", the traditional sailing stage, erected on boats, delighted the large crowd watching veteran Konkani singers as well as local artistes perform on the sailing state as it moved don the Orda creek in Candolim 29th June evening. It was in celebration of the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, which is celebrated by the people of Candolim with great fervour year after year.

"VATTA POORNIMA"
This is a rare tradition in which a woman ties a thread around a large three and prayers that her husband may be protected from all dangers and live a long life. One such events was seen in Porvorim in the month of June.

"PATOLLEO" AT BIG FOOT'S "SAO JOAO"
Nearly 300 hundred guests gathered for the traditional feast of Sao Joao at Big Foot's Ancestral Goa in Loutulim on June 24. Besides the usual ethnic elements like pond leaping, beating of drums, flower crowns, the participants feasted on Goan delicacies like "patolleo".