History of Carnival

Encyclopedia Britannica describes Carnival and its origins in the following paragraph: Carnival, is the merrymaking and festivity that takes place in many Roman Catholic countries in the last days and hours before the Lenten season. The derivation of the word is uncertain, though it possibly can be traced to the medieval Latin "carnem levare" or "carnelevarium", which means to take away or remove meat. This coincides with the fact that Carnival is the final festivity before the commencement of the austere 40 days of Lent, during which Roman Catholics in earlier times fasted, abstained from eating meat, and followed other ascetic practices. The historical origin of Carnival is also obscure. It possibly has its roots in a primitive festival honoring the beginning of the new year and the rebirth of nature, though it is also possible that the beginnings of Carnival in Italy may be linked to the pagan Saturnalian festival of ancient Rome. 

It is celebrated starting from "Sabado Gordo" (Fat Saturday), the Saturday before the start of Santa Quaresma (Lent) on Ash Wednesday. Traditionally, through out the towns and villages of Goa,
Carnival is celebrated in many European countries like Portugal,Spain,Italy, France (Mardi Gras on the French Riviera), Germany and some of the former European colonies in Africa and Asia.

Important to Caribbean festival arts are the ancient African traditions of parading and moving in circles through villages in costumes and masks. Circling villages was believed to bring good fortune, to heal problems, and chill out angry relatives who had died and passed into the next world. Carnival traditions also borrow from the African tradition of putting together natural objects (bones, grasses, beads, shells, fabric) to create a piece of sculpture, a mask, or costume — with each object or combination of objects representing a certain idea or spiritual force.

Feathers were frequently used by Africans in their motherland on masks and headdresses as a symbol of our ability as humans to rise above problems, pains, heartbreaks, illness — to travel to another world to be reborn and to grow spiritually. Today, we see feathers used in many creative forms incorporated in carnival costumes.

African dance and music traditions transformed the early carnival celebrations in the Americas, as African drum rhythms, large puppets, stick fighters, and stilt dancers began to make their appearances in the carnival festivities.

In many parts of the world, where Catholic Europeans set up colonies and entered into the slave trade, carnival took root. Brazil, once a Portuguese colony, is famous for its carnival, as is Mardi Gras in Louisiana (where African-Americans mixed with French settlers and Native Americans). Carnival celebrations are now found throughout the Caribbean in Barbados, Jamaica, Grenada, Dominica, Haiti, Cuba, St. Thomas, St. Marten; in Central and South America in Belize, Panama, Brazil; and in large cities in Canada and the U.S. where Caribbean people have settled, including Brooklyn, Miami, and Toronto and San Francisco. 

Panjim's Latin Quarters

Between 1830 and 1839, when plague threatened to destroy Old Goa, the Portuguese residents decided to move to Nova Goa. They settled around a natural spring, and called their new home Fontainhas. 

Street in the Latin Quarter 

The Latin Quarters are bound by the Altinho hill to the west and the Ourem creek to the east and tucked away from the bustle of the main city. The latin quarter is a town within a town, with it's own unique character and is in many ways a replica of a small town in the Iberian peninsula.

Local Spice Farms

These terraced heavens called kulagars, not only grow areca nut but also different spice plants, fruit and vegetable bearing trees, such as jackfruit, mangoes, chickoo, drumsticks and bread fruit. They are irrigated by springs from hills or water pumped from rivulets and fertilized using natural organic manure. Being thickly vegetated, the kulagars attract a lot of birds and other fauna. An ancient custom followed by these plantations, is to leave about a tenth of the ripened fruit on the trees to sustain the wildlife.

Enterprising owners of some of these have converted their properties into green havens, now popularly known as the Spice Gardens; promising interesting guided tours through the groves and vines laden with spices like pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, tumeric and exotic herbs.

Pathway leading through the groves

Museum of Christian Art, Old Goa

The Museum of Christian Art is one of the few institutions of its kind in Asia. It is located in the Convent of Santa Monica, Old Goa, in the vicinity of World Heritage Monuments.

Tiracol Fort

Located on the northern tip of Goa at the mouth of the Tiracol River, Fort Tiracol is reached by a ferry from Keri. The name is likely to have originated from the Marathi tir-khol translating as "steep river-bank".

View of the fort from across the Tiracol river.