Tourism
of Goa
Fairs
& Festivals ::
Christian
Festivals
ChristmasLike
elsewhere in the world, December 25 is celebrated in Goa too as the nativity
of Jesus Christ 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, for
Christmas is also about cakes and puddings.
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.
For
the devout, the celebrations begin on Christmas Eve. Carols are sung and
various churches organize the midnight Mass. The service on Christmas Day is
attended by Christians dressed in new clothes. After the morning
congregation is over, people assemble in their homes for the family
get-togethers.
In Goa, Christmas is celebrated in the European way
with the celebrations revolving around the family. But it has strands woven
in that go to make it a Goan one. 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.
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