GOA CELEBRATES CHRISTMAS WITH CAUTION

Cribs

go

low key

with a message
Going from village to village to see cribs is one of the

many things

that families would do after Christmas mass. But this year will be different. Due to the pandemic, many groups that used to have massive cribs have decided to celebrate a low key celebration. William Britto from Ucassaim spearheaded a unique LED crib with a message to spread

light

and positivity. “The crib is placed in the fields and is completely made of 1,000 LED lights. This year we engineered a crib made with 12 handcrafted figures. We want to spread the message of ‘wear masks, stay

safe

and celebrate safe Christmas,” says William.
Joseph D’Souza and his friends would make a floating crib at Colva, but this year they planned not to make it. Similarly, John Dsouza, from Raia, would make a crib which attracted a lot of people, but this year decided against putting it up. “The team feels that we shouldn’t encourage people to crowd at the time of the pandemic. Instead, a few of us are helping in the church crib,” he says.

Christmas parties with safety measures
Partying and celebrating go hand in hand with Christmas for locals in Goa, but this year will be slightly different. Major events were cancelled, and more events are happening at smaller venues. Navin Rodrigues, organiser of the biggest annual Christmas dance every year at Quinta de Valladares, says, “We took the decision to cancel it this year since it’s the one that gets the biggest crowd and we wanted our guests to be safe. I am playing at the Southern Deck and Cohiba instead.”
However, a number of dances and parties are taking place this year too. Kenneth Rebello, corporate manager, SinQ, says, “We are still trying to leave the bad vibes behind and celebrate Christmas as safely as we can. We have a limited capacity event, with just 50% of the crowd as compared to last year.” Mackenzie Pereira is going ahead with his annual event, to be held at Cohiba, tonight with safety measures in place.

Church activities toned down

Church activities on a hold this year

For the week after Christmas churches would organise various events like carol singing, star competitions and serenading, but due to COVID events that would lead to social gathering have been cancelled. “We used to have a week-long programme for our parishioners but this year we decided to have only one event on December 26. We have felicitated police, doctors, nurses and other COVID warriors but we haven’t felicitated garbage collectors. We will be celebrating them for their hard work and for keeping us safe,” says Fr Bolmax Pereira, parish priest of St Francis Xavier Church, Chicalim.

Tourist season has picked up

influx of tourists in Goa

Goa has seen an influx of a large number of tourists in the past few days. Nilesh Shah, president of Travel and Tourism Association of Goa, tells us, “The Christmas season is being good for Goa tourism; many hotels are running on full occupancy already. Bookings have been encouraging with up to 80-90% in starred hotels. Smaller hotels are still suffering, but even their occupancy should go up to 80%. As of now around 2,800 hotels haven’t reopened. The ones that are open are having small events, though musicians, event organisers and others who usually conduct events at hotels may not have as much work.” Several five star properties have their weeklong events planned, including their Christmas eve and New Year’s Eve bashes, brunches/lunches and so on.

Police bandobast for law and order

Cops were posted on the streets of Goa

Unlike in other states, the government has not announced any night curfew in Goa yet, but police will be out in Goa in large numbers to ensure law and order is maintained. Edwin Colaco, Sub Divisional Police Officer of Porvorim, who also manages the tourist police in North Goa, says, “We will be following the same procedures and arrangements like last year. There has been an influx of tourists, since it is a long weekend we have deployed our cops at all places. There are many people who have extended their holiday till the New Year and we will be on duty. This is the toughest time of the year for cops.”