Goa lays carpet for its Carnival festival 2018

Panaji, February 9: Goa is in the festive mode as the state is set to celebrate its Carnival from Feb 10 to Feb 13.

 

57-year old Bruno Azaredo from Utorda in South Goa was selected as King Momo, a mythical ‘King of the Carnival’, who ushers in the festival in this erstwhile Portuguese colony.

The carnival marks the celebrations before the month of Lent, which characterizes fasting or abstinence from meat. Lent ends in Easter and is significant for the Catholics. However, the carnival celebration reverberates with echoes of pagan culture dating back to Roman Saturnalia and feasts of Apollo in Greece. The Carnival now has taken on many secular implications in most places that celebrate the carnival. The Goa Carnival, for instance, has turned out to be a major tourist attraction drawing thousands of tourists from all over the country.

The Carnival is set to the motion on the first day-Fat Saturday evening with a colossal procession headed by King Momo. This procession is flocked by dancers, bands of troubadours dressed up as fortune tellers, hawkers, women, and older men in funny clothes. In earlier times the procession was characterized by mock battles among boys and men with fake cartridges stuffed with a coloured powder called cocotes, and chaff-filled bombs.

The carnival comes to an end with the famous red and black dance where women dressed in red tops and black skirts and men in red shirts and black trousers dance with bands in a colourful procession.

Float parades in the major cities will be held as follows:

Panjim on 10th February, 4.00 pm onwards

Miramar to Dona Paula.

Margao on 11th February, 4.00 pm onwards

Ponda on 11th February, 4.00 pm onwards

Bhavani Sadan, Kaziwada To Tisk, Ponda.

Vasco on 12th February, 4.00 pm onwards

Sant Andrew Church To Vasco railway station.

Curchorem on 12th February, 4.00 pm onwards

Curchorem Railway Station To Bus Stand.

Mapusa on 13th February, 4.00 pm onwards

Mapusa Court To Bus Stand.

Morjim on 13th February, 4.00 pm onwards

Morjim Church To Vidya Prasarak High School.

The categories of floats are as follows:

1.Traditional

2.Club / Institutions

3.Family