Today the world will celebrate the festival of colours, Holi. But in Goa the festivities began much in advance with the onset of Shigmo festival. NT BUZZ delves further to understand more about this festival and also about the Dhaklo and Vhadlo Shigmo
ARTI DAS | NT BUZZ
Today, March 24 will witness the celebration of the festival of Rangapanchami. As the name suggests, it is dedicated to colours and revellers celebrate by throwing colours at each other. It is in many ways the celebration of spring season.
Interestingly in Goa the celebrations start much before the Holi festival. In South Goa festivities end with Holi while in North Goa they begin with Holi.
The Shigmo festival in Goa is celebrated for ten to twelve days coinciding with Holi celebrations. It is the celebration of the harvest festival and is a time when villagers are free before the on-set of pre-monsoon farming activities.
“The Shigmo festival which is held in South Goa is called Dhaklo (small) Shigmo and which is held in North Goa (which is after the Holi festival) is called Vhadlo (big) Shigmo. This is even stated by late Malbarao Sardesai, great musicologist of Goa.
The Shigmo in South Goa commences on the ninth night of Falgun and culminates on the day of Holi. During these days, groups of village dancers called ‘mell’ start their performance on the sacred place called ‘maand’. It starts with offering of ‘naman’ to the village deity. The mell follows a traditionally designated route and presents its performance in all surrounding villages. It then culminates at the village maand which is locally called ‘maand davrap,” says folklorist and writer Pandurang Phaldesai.
The mell consists of traditional performing arts like viramell, talgadi, chowrangtalo, goph, morulo, tonayammell, aarati, etc. Nowadays this tradition is still followed but participation is few. But, still in some villages it is heartening to witness the participation of young boys in this traditional dance form.
The members of this mell belong either to a particular caste/community or a village. “Nowadays they are mostly members of a ward or village,” says Phaldesai.
They are groups of dancers who perform outside the house of villagers. In villages of Canacona around seven groups perform.
In North Goa also there are similar mells that happen, but there is a difference in dance forms. “There is performing art happening but the dances are different. Like in south Goa you will not witness Ghodemodni, ranmale, etc,” says Phaldesai.
When asked why there is a difference in the timing in north and south Goa, Phaldesai states that there is no concrete reason. But, he further adds that in North Goa there is an influence of the neighbouring state of Maharashtra and that could be one of the reasons.
It is believed that these performers take divine inspiration from local deities such as Mandaguru, Khuti, Santeri, Ravalnath, Mhalasa, Shantadurga, Mangesh, Damodar, etc.
Another aspect of the Shigmo festival is the performance called gade that mainly takes place in North Goa. The most famous ones are held in Pilgao and Sal.
Many a time people get confused over why such an invocation is held during the festive season of Shigmo. Writer and folklore expert Rajendra Kerkar explains that one needs to look at the big picture. “During Shigmo festival devotees revere lord Shiva who is the god of destruction and that is why you witness this tradition of gade. Lord Shiva is considered to be the god who exercise control on the evil spirits. Hence through the tradition of gade in some villages of Goa one witnesses that these gades run to the crematorium and bring bones, skull, broken earthen pots, bamboo sticks, etc,” says Kerkar who further explains that these evil or holy spirits should not be confused with betal or the rakhno who are considered as village protectors.
All these festivities and observations culminate by end of the Hindu month Falgun. These events are peculiar to Goa and in many ways represent the cultural diversity of this state.