Tourist Spots

Get your Freak on

Goa beholds her people going hysteric many a time round the year during festivals. Year-end, that is the Christmas eve followed by the New Year, has tens of thousands of tourists from across the world coming to Goa. The beaches turn into dance-floors and the celebration is a carnival of sorts. But the real Goan Carnivals are the Carnaval (Portuguese for Carnival) and Shigmo awaited by Goans and party-animals who have had a taste of it.


The 3-day gala fiesta Carnaval is, however, endemic to Goa and yet another Portuguese charm. Celebrated since 18th century as a means to ‘let off steam’ before Lent the period of abstinence. It first conceptualized in the Spanish and Portuguese colonies, where it metamorphosed into the very Latin singing-dancing-drinking celebration that it is today. This 3-day gala fiesta, otherwise a Christian celebration, has absorbed Hindu tradition-bound revelry and western tango, and stimulated by the artistry of the Goan genius turned into a pageantry of singular effervescence. What has made it a Goa’s ‘officially-yours’ is the recent involvement of the Goan Government, seeing the overwhelming tourist influx.
What to Expect Goa turns into a cascade of colors with the streets welling with processions of masked and fancy-costumed dancers and other artists. Dose of on-the-spot street performances and a lot of cultural hoopla. A large number of floats and tableaux added special glamor to the occasion. Try not to miss the final day's festivities, which conclude with the famous red-and-black dance held by the Clube Nacional in Panjim.