The word Navratri is derived from Sanskrit which means nine nights – Nava(nine) Ratri(night).Also known as Maha Navratri, this festival falls in the lunar month of Ashwin during Sharad Ritu. They wear different colour throught the nine days of this festival. These colours are green, blue, red, orange, yellow, indigo, violet, pink and tints and hues of golden.

It is believed that during this time, goddess Durga battled the demon Mahishasura, who represents egotism and emerged victorious to help restore peace and dharma.

The nine-day festival ends with the celebration of Dussehra, which signifies the victory of good over evil.

The Goa Carnival commemorates the 450-year-old presence of the Portuguese in Goa. It is a festival organised before Lent, which is meant for fasting and penance among the Catholics, 40 days ahead of Easter celebrations. Goa Carnival is celebrated in panaji Vasco, Mapusa and Margao.With each city hosting a parade on every separate night, Goan streets light up with marching bands, group dances and people dressed in colourful costumes.

Holi is considered as one of the most revered and celebrated festivals of India and it is celebrated in almost every part of the country. It is also sometimes called as the “festival of love” as on this day people get to unite together forgetting all resentments and all types of bad feeling towards each other. The great Indian festival lasts for a day and a night, which starts in the evening of Purnima or the Full Moon Day in the month of Falgun. It is celebrated with the name Holika Dahan or Choti Holi on first evening of the festival and the following day is called Holi. In different parts of the country it is known with different names.

Hindus apply different colour on each other. Water ballons and water filled guns are also used to play and colour each other. People play drumbs and sing songs to celebrate this festival. All religions play this festival with emence joy. People visit family and friends to greet each other and apply colours to each other. They prepare variety of food and drinks for holi such as bhang and many sweets

Diwali or Depawali is one of the ancient festival that is being celebrated with great excitement. Hindus beleive that it is the festival of wealth and prosperity.it was beleived to be the time when lord ram defeated and killed the evil ravan .They light up diyas infront of their houses .it is the night of fireworks and crackers. They wear new clothes and exchange sweets with each other.

During diwali the women of the houses cook the meals and food from homes. Many sweets are prepared on this day like son paphdi, poha, nevris , motichur ke ladoo , chaklis and many more

Christmas in goa is celebrated on 25 december. Lord jesus was born on this day. Goan tradition in christmas is for everbody to gather togetjer in their ancestors house. Christians attend mid night mass on this day which usually starts at 10 pm .They say a prayer and sing carols and later they greet each other merry christmas Every religion in goa have its crib making compition for which they later get price. Beside from this they also prepare small small cribs near their houses.

All the women gather toagether and make variety of sweets like Bebinca,dodol,cookies,nevrious etc.Another traditional food of goa is kulkul .

Ganesh chaturthi is the 10 days hindu festival celebrated to honour lord ganesha. Lord ganesha’s idols are made before a month. Hindus clean their house and decorate it to install lord ganesha’s murti. All relatives gather at their main house to celebrate this festival together. Hindus perform pooja with their family and friends.

Hindus prepare varieties of food items on chaturthi their main item is modak. 5 foods that lord ganesha loves are puran pori ,ladoo, poha, sheera, shrikhand and ambadyachi chutney. During this period every day arti is performed.

They can keep the idol for one and half days, three days, five days, seven days,ten days or even 21 days before visarjan.

Eid ul fitr is the biggest festival of the followers of islam around the world. It is known as the festival of fast breaking.Eid ul fitr marks the end of the holy month ramadan. Muslims practice the month of fasting without eating or drinking anything. It is the 9 month of the islamic calender. It is the month of prayer and sharing people help others and do charity during this month. The morning fast starts with sehri and ends with iftarDates are eaten to break the fast. prophet mohammad broke his fast in this tradition . This day is celebrated with the must namaz in the morning. The namaz of eid is performed at the eidgah or masjid.A special kheer is prepaid at this day which is called as shir khurma and biryani is also as important as shir khurma.People greet at different houses to wish eid greetings to their relatives. Muslims celebrate this festival with very joy

VIVA SAO JOAO:
As the third week of June arrives, the Goans are ready to jump in the wells literally. They are not doing it for any wrong purpose, but to fish out the gifts hidden there, on the very special occasion of Sao Joao . It is the festival that celebrates the feast of St. John the Baptist. According to the Catholic Association the feast is celebrated on 24th June every year. This festival is celebrated with a great pomp and showoff , by the Goans during the monsoon season. The wells are full of water around this time of the year. The festival brings about loads of fun among youngsters, aged, adults, and most enthusiastically to the kids. People enjoy jumping in the wells, in rivers or just dancing in the pouring rains. It could well be a rain festival of Goa. It happens in almost all villages of Goa around their wells, rivers ,canals or ponds. On the feast day, villagers begin the day by taking a plunge in the village wells singing Sao Joao . The highlights of the day is the Sangodd ,on which people parade singing Mandos and religious hymns. The Sangodds are uniquely decorated and members of that sangodd wear uniform dress to distinguish themselves from other groups. This is also a time to celebrate one’s spirit of adventure

The young men’s jump in the wells to retrieve gifts thrown in by the villagers. People especially the new married or those with a new born babies gather with the dali and gifts containing seasonal fruits like mango ,pineapples ,jackfruits and a bottle of feni.

Fruits used in sao joao

Wearing coronet of wild flowers

The young and old alike sing and dance to the beat of the ghumot , with lovely coronets of seasonal wild flowers on their heads and drenched to the bone with feni.

Another interesting version I have heard of this ritual is that the burning of hay (or trash lately) symbolises the burning of Judas the Jew, thus referred to as Judeo. I also heard another story that links this practice to the pagan midsummer ritual in Europe of burning trash and making fires that could drive away dragons from poisoning springs and wells and to frighten the evil spirits. Like I said earlier, it often happens that the the rituals practiced for generations after generations lose their context somewhere along the way and yet the symbols they represent live on. It’s all so incredibly fascinating!

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton