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Thousands of tourists come to Goa every year for the four-day carnival. Ervell E. Menezes reports
rom February 25, Goa starts celebrating the Carnival, a four-day splash of enjoyment before the austere Christian season of Lent. And though thousands of tourists come to Goa especially for the event, it takes different hues for different folk. What’s more its metamorphosis continues. In the 1980s, the Carnival meant Goa and the commercial version (begun in 1975 in an attempt to emulate Rio) but that was before the Christmas week took over and the beach-belt, especially Calangute-Baga, is like a foreign enclave, with foreigners and the elite from Mumbai hogging the spotlight. The 1990s saw a dip in the event, that is the opening parade in Panjim because the Catholic Church opposed it on the grounds that girls were being drugged and taken advantage of. But the Carnival survived that assault and Panjim continued to be the focal point, though the event is replicated in Margao and Mapuca. The event is too deeply embedded in the Goan psyche to just disappear.
But now the focus seems to be moving to the beach belt and Calangute is fast gaining popularity with the foreigners joining it in a big way. Last year, there were belly dancers, pancake races and a king-size omelette as major draws and the Calangute Sarpanch Joseph Sequeira has taken over at the helm of the event. Why, even Francisco "Fanquit" Martins says he prefers to take part in it. Martins is the uncrowned king of the Carnival and the Republic Day floats in New Delhi and is the virtual cultural ambassador of Goa for a plethora of events like the Asian Games opening or the Nehru Centenary in 1989 and Rajiv Gandhi wanted him on many all-India cultural events. The best part of the Panjim Carnival is the Red and Black dance held on the last day of the Carnival. It is unique in that it is held by Club National on the streets of Panjim which are cleared and cordoned off for the night. So, after the fun and frolic with four bands playing and everyone shaking a leg, it is back to normal the next morning. The origin of the word Carnival comes from the Latin expression "carnem levare" or "carnevarium" which means "take away meat" or "to remove meat" which meant that Catholics abstained from meat during the austere period of Lent, that is 40-odd days before the death of Christ and his resurrection on Easter Sunday. So the Carnival originated as a pagan festival to have fun and frolic before Lent. But before the Goa Tourism Development Corporation began this commercial carnival in 1974, the event had earlier been spread out in the villages when folks in fancy dress visited houses and were entertained by fellow villagers. They also threw "cockots" or powder packets at each other like during Holi. It was healthy fun except that at times it was overdone because of the disguise of fancy dress. That has long since changed and the village fare diminished with time. This year, the Panjim event has decided to ban commercial floats and that is a good step. They will probably have a theme, which has not been decided yet. In Goa, everything moves at a leisurely pace but it seems that folks are getting tired of the gala Panjim Carnival and things may move to smaller places. The Calangute carnival seems to be the next stop. But for tourists, both domestic and foreign, the Carnival is still a big draw. As for Goa, it continues to be a major destination that has many attractions for many folks. Some come to visit the restaurants with choice Goan cuisine like Martins in Betal-Batim and Brittos in Baga to name only two. But like the Romans, Goa has a many-layered entertainment. For while some enjoy the Carnival and its floats, there are others floating in space and time at the drug parties that go on for over 24 hours with the blessing of the powers that be. And this transcends political affiliations. Why even in a German film at MIFF "Goa parties" are referred to which means they are high on the German tourists menu. |
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