India is regarded for its various lifestyle and a variant of bright festivals. And why not? We Indians love to have a good time at our fairs with the utmost excitement. India depicts so many religions celebrating so many festivals like Diwali, Eid, Christmas and a lot more, in every State of the country. Today we are going to speak about a very famous Hindu festival that we all long for – Ganesh Chaturthi in Goa.
When it comes to festival celebrations in a state like Goa, we are known for ‘Unity of Diversity’ and irrespective of the religion, we all partake in the festival of Ganesh Chaturthi in Goa with equal enthusiasm.
We pray to Lord Ganesha for wisdom, prosperity and desirable fortune. For Ganesh Chaturthi in Goa, we go to our native places decked up the residence with vibrant decoration, set up the ordinary Matoli and cook dinner scrumptious meals & sweets!
Ganesh Chaturthi in Goa is domestically referred to as chovoth, is a monsoon festival that brings collectively households scattered round the world. Houses shut through the year open their doorways to welcome the elephant-headed god, in the structure of clay idols. Chovoth is generally a household festival, however, neighbourhood celebrations are held too. It is a pageant that truly celebrates nature and the bounty of the land.
Chovoth is additionally an essential culinary event in the Goan Hindu calendar.
Ganesh Chaturthi Sweets in The Kitchen
A Goan meal may be incomplete without fish but Hindus abstain from it during Shravan, sticking to xivrak (vegetarian food), made without onion or garlic. In the absence of meat and fish, they turn to lentils, pulses and seasonal vegetables.
Though festivities can go on for up to 21 days, the first three are the most important and the food prepared on each day changes.
The first day, tay or tai is dedicated to Gauri or Parvati, Ganesha’s mother. The food prepared on this day is meant to satiate her pregnancy cravings. Another dish made that day is patoli – a typical monsoon delicacy of rice flour paste filled with a coconut and jaggery mixture, steamed inside turmeric leaves. The tay patoli doesn’t have salt and is often offered to the goddess without the filling.
Rice paste smeared on turmeric leaves with a stuffing of coconut and Jaggery Rice paste smeared on turmeric leaves with a stuffing of coconut and jaggery
Many married women observe this as a day of fast, abstaining from rice preparations and only eating fruit, a simple sabudana khichdi, and patoli made with wheat flour.
Other dishes include alu chi bhaji – colocasia leaves cooked with bikna (jackfruit seeds), ambade (hog plum), dal, alsande (black eyed peas) and coconut; and mooga gathi – sprouted moong dal coconut curry.
Ganesha enters the home on the second day, Chaturthi. The god is believed to have a sweet tooth and is fed 21 modaks.
Neureos are crescent-shaped sweets made with a maida, wheat flour, rava or sweet potato coating and a stuffing of dry coconut and sugar or wheat flour, sesame, khus khus and coconut (pitachem nevri). Besides these two sweets, there is mangane – chana dal kheer with jaggery and sometimes prepared with sago, and milk modaks.
A popular dish of the day is khatkhatem – a mixed vegetable stew. Other dishes include val chi bhaji, chane tondak or chonyacho ross – green or white peas in a coconut curry, bimblachem sasav – a sweet and sour curry made of bimbli (tree sorrel), and ghosalichi bhaji (ridge gourd). The curries made are either ross – a light coconut version with a tadka or tondak – a coconut curry heavy on the masalas. Bread is not typically eaten, instead there are puris and vadem – rice flour and urad dal (split black gran) puris.
Another sweet dish is sanna, an idli-like steamed snack of rice with urad dal, eaten by dipping it in a ross of coconut milk and jaggery. Traditionally, these are cooked in jackfruit leaves shaped into cones.
Bowl of thin gravy with tomatoes Bowl of thin gravy with tomatoes
Tomato saar is a cooked on all three chovoth days. Credit Shubhra Shankwalkar
Kheer, with tapioca or sheviya (vermicelli), is sometimes made as a sweet dish. There’s also fenori (chiroti), a deep-fried crispy layered pastry dusted with sugar. All snacks, collectively called faral, are typically homemade.
Ganesh Chaturthi Seasonal Produce
Vegetables and fruit star in another important aspect of the celebration. The matoli is a wooden awning decorated with seasonal biodiversity like wildflowers, leaves, medicinal herbs, fruit and vegetables. The different leaves called patri are tied in bunches and hung. A bundle of blades of grass called dudhva/durva also forms part of the puja, as do betel leaves and betelnuts.
Every home has a different kind of matoli, whose contents are picked up individually by families or from special matoli markets in Margao and Banastarim.
As is expected from a festival that includes a lot of food, even the prasad is delicious. Besides donem, there’s paanch khadya, a mixture of coconut, jaggery, roasted moong dal, elaichi powder, cashew nuts, cardamom; and paanch khaje, which are modaks shaped into different forms.
Unlike Mumbai and Pune, Ganesha Chaturthi celebrations in Goa are largely focussed on family. It’s a family get-together, and the celebrations include feasting, prayer, devotion and tasteful entertainment. An integral part of the chovoth celebrations is the sense of community. Non Hindus will visit different people’s houses to wish them, admire their matoli, and get fed. It is a well-known fact that no one leaves a Hindu home during chovoth, hungry. If not asked to stay for a meal, visitors are fed snacks like chakli, shankarpali, shev, chivda, rava ladoo and pityache ladoo. Often, people will send tiffins of neuris, modaks, chonyacho ross, and bhajis to elderly neighbours who cannot visit.
Chovoth, which celebrates a god who likes to eat, is fittingly a festival of culinary diversity.
Ganesh Chaturthi in Goa: Places to visit
Every household celebrates Ganesh Chaturthi in Goa very vividly. However, there are some beautiful Ganesh Installations in Goa worth paying a visit to. The best Ganesh installations can be seen in Marcel & Cumbarjua where Sri Ram Mandir, Cumbarjua & Marshel Kala, Premi, Marcel are two places that host great installations.
In the capital of Goa, one can visit the Hanuman Temple at Altinho, the Police Station Headquarters & Boca de Vaca to take a look at the most artistic installations of Lord Ganesh in Panjim.
