Dhalo

Dhalo is one of the popular rural dances of Goa. It is performed on the moonlit night of Hindu ‘Pausha’ month.

Dhalo is performed for praying to get rescued from all evil powers, improve relations and to maintain peace in the village. Dhalo usually begins on a Wednesday or on Sunday.

 Before the celebration, the women decorate the open space of their house which is called as ‘ and the temple with ‘rangoli’ and women from the villages are also invited to participate in the dance but widows do not participate.

The dancers arrange themselves in two parallel rows of 12 facing each other and form a link between themselves with arm around the back swinging forward and backward singing the stories of their life and the society. The songs are in Konkani and Marathi. The songs cover religious and social themes and the dance goes on every night for a week.

LAIRAI JATRA

Every year I visit this Jatra of Devi lairai which is one of the more famous and more unusual Jatra celebrated in Goa. This jatra is celebrated in Shirgao which is small town in Bicholim taluka. The Shirgao Jatra is famous among all devotees and also tourists for the celebrated walk on hot coals raked from an enormous bonfire. The Jatra takes place in early part of May, when thousands of devotees of Devi Lairai descend on the small town and religious rituals and poojas dedicated to the Goddess are performed throughout the day.

Hundreds of people from the villages in surrounding areas also take part in these celebrations. Groups of these villagers from villages such as Maulingem arrive in the early morning hours and participate in events throughout the day. The Jatra take place over a period of five or six days. The festival is celebrated by the tribal communities living in the area although the devotees come from all over goa.

The festival begins early in the morning and continues throughout the day. Men and a few women, who participate, take a ritual bath in a pound located near the Temple. The devotees then walk all the way uphill to the temple as an act of penance, endurance, and worship of the Goddess. In evening more devotees come who all perform the same ritual of worship and penance. Most of the devotees wear a peculiar type of dhoti especially for the festival, a white t-shirt, a colorful cape around the shoulders, and a scarf-like cloth around the waist. Special flower garlands made from jasmine and other local flowers are worn by the devotees around their necks.A special stick, about 6 feet long, made from twisted vines is carried by the worshippers throughout the rituals of the day. The sticks are made by the devotees themselves and decorated with colored yarn which symbolizes the flowers used in festivals of previous years.

As midnight approaches, the devotees perform a frantic dance inside the temple which is all lit up for the occasion. The dance takes place to the rhythm of drum beats, in a tight circle in front of Goddess Lairai. While chanting and moving in a tight circle the devotees hold the special sticks clashing them against one another. The circular dance reaches a feverish high with a single drum beat denoting the end of that dance session.

The final and most spectacular part of the Jatra then begins, when a specially chosen person races from the temple to the wooden pile and lights a massive bonfire with a blazing torch. The chanting and dancing then continues around the massive bonfire with the devotees touching the holy fire with their sticks. 

In the early hours of the morning when the fire has died down, the raking of the coals begins. The devotees await their turn to walk on the holy path of hot coals. The actual ritual starts, with the devotees running through the hot coals carrying their sticks and shouting the name of Devi Lairai.

Eid

BAKRI-EID

       Here comes another festival. Eid is the festival of Muslims. They celebrate this festival with lot of enthusiasm.  As far as i know, the Muslims keep fast for entire month after seeing the moon of Ramzan. when the month of Ramzan gets over they again see the moon and end the fast kept by them which is also called Roja by the Muslims. The next day the festival of Eid is celebrated.


when i asked one of my friend he told me that it is the festival of love and goodwill. Muslim believes that keeping fast in the month of namaz clean their soul and prayers after fasting saves them from going to hell and opens the doors of heaven. 

On the Eid day, the Muslims people get up early at 5 in the morning. They get ready after having bath and wearing their best dress or new dresses. Then they visit mosques and offer prayers. People go to symmetry and do cleaning. sweets are distributed, gifts are exchanged and dishes are cooked at home. Two special dish sheerkurma and Biryani is made this day. 

At sharp 1.00 pm people pray namaz in the mosques which is also called Eid ki Namaz... They get Eidi on this day. After the namaz people hug each other and exchange greetings of the holy day. "Eid Mubarak" is what they say. 

Dussehra

DUSSEHRA

Just after the Navratri season, here comes another Hindu festival Dashahara.  It is one of the most important  festival in India.  It mostly falls in the month of Sept-Oct and this year it has come on 3rd October 2014. According to the culture dashahara is celebrated as on this day lord Ram killed the devil Ravan.  Dashahara is celebrated on the 10th day of navratri and 20 days before diwali in Goa.

In Goa this festival is celebrated in a different way. On this day, the moment people wake up they run to wash their vehicles and do puja of their vehicles or clean their homes. You will see this in every part of the state. This is the festival i wait the most because i get full permission to play with water as i wash my bike. Actually everything right from vehicles to the homes  is garlanded with marigold flowers on this day. This is the best day to bring new things, vehicles, home, etc. 

On this day, most of the temples has a spiritual program which include spiritual persons in konkani we call them dhond. this is treat to watch as this persons turn into avatars of god on this day. It is call Bhaar in Goa. most people visit temple to see this show and get blessings of these spiritual persons. sometimes its dangerous as those persons are not aware of what they are doing. 

Rather then Goa in other states this occasion is celebrated by burning Ravan's idol. They also make a drama called as Ramleela to show how Lord Ram killed the devil.