Viva Carnival, Viva Goa!
Feb 9 to 12, 2002

Come spring and Goa is agog with festivities. There is an air of expectancy and everyone gears up for the big event of the year and the most awaited of spring fiestas, the Carnival.

A legacy of the Portuguese, the Carnival today, is an integral part of Goan culture and has been celebrated for the last four and a half centuries just before the Christian mourning period of Lent.

In the good old days, during the period of Lent when people had to abstain from meat or meat products, they had to finish all the meat based food in their larders. But how could one family finish it all? So the neighbours were invited in and they, in turn, invited others. It was a very joyful time with neighbours sampling each others food. Of course, because the honour of the housewife was at stake, everyone made extra special food so that the neighbours could say `Ah! What a feast we had !' And that's what started the feasting before the fasting began.

The festivities begin with the legendary King Momo, the Greek god of satire and laughter, reading out his bombastic and hilarious edict that for the next 3 days and 4 nights, all cares and worries were to be banished and there was to be unrivalled fun, frolic and merry-making.

The Carnival is marked with a picturesque parade of decorated floats sporting masked revellers that tour the main streets of Goa, entertaining tourists and spectators along the way. Floats with underwater themes, Portuguese Goa, the stone age, the shipyard, stilt-walkers, mummies, gigantic masks, even an enormous silver snake slithering sinuously. In addition, there are groups of serenaders and troupes of performers to delight the crowds. Street bands and dances go on all through the night. And the music from Goa’s gifted musicians is compulsive. Interesting street plays dramatizing a local incident or the follies and foibles of politicians and high society are enacted, lending a local flavour to the festivities. But the most amazing aspect of this three-day extravaganza is the untiring capacity of the local reveller to sing, dance and make merry for the entire period.

Basically a festival of fun, reflecting in a pageant of colour the cultural heritage of Goa, it highlights the different aspects of existing social and cultural mores.The Carnival has given a fillip to the little state’s economy; and along with its beaches and churches, it has given Goa a unique identity.

For those who have never experienced the Carnival before, this is an event not to be missed on any account

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