This is a Goa you might not easily recognise (perhaps because it's so much overlooked and neglected).
Check this out: a video recently put out by Alexander Henn (Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Arizona State University at Tempe, AZ 85287-4302 [email protected]) and Alito Siqueira (Goa University, Department of Sociology [email protected]) The film is accessible on http://vimeo.com/18668418 A summary from its authors: QUOTE Every year, Hindus and Catholics in the villages of Goa (India) honor their gods and saints and ancestors in this colorful night-long ritual called Jagor. The ceremonies combine prayers, songs, skits and dances from both the Hindu and the Catholic tradition and the languages of Konkani and Portuguese intersect. The ritual is thus reminiscent of India's longest-lasting experience of European colonialism under Portuguese-Catholic rule (1510-1961). As the genealogies of its performers, the ritual has gone through conversion and shuddhi (purification), has become Catholic and Hindu and has reached its post-colonial syncretistic presence today. Its songs have no master narrative but string together a multitude of stories dealing with mythology and the everyday, the divine and the mundane, drama and laughter. Above all, they present the voices of the Goan Gaude and Render and other men and women and children at home in Goa, for whom staying awake for their gods and saints for an entire night was always a way of praying and feasting, trusting and staying healthy, and expressing their culture, art and Self. ENDQUOTE Photography and editing S. Gasper D'Souza This film combines clips from my research the subject since 1994 with new footage and interviews from 2010. Knowing Henn and Alito, and their earlier work, I'm sure it would be interesting, insightful and a useful contribution to understanding the many faces that make up Goa. FN Frederick Noronha :: +91-9822122436 :: +91-832-2409490
