GULAL FESTIVAL

 


Gulal is a festival connected to the shigmo festival of Goa. It is celebrated in the month of phalgun at the shri Damodar temple of zambaulim,where this festival takes place. There are no records as to when the festival began. During the portuguese regime, christianity was introduced and sometimes by force. The Hindus and muslims were suppressed by the portuguese who stopped them of practicing their rituals and customs. However, the Hindus managed to continue with them inspite  of the ban. The portuguese destroyed some temples, which included the temple of shri Damodar in Margao. The devotees tried their best to take away the idol of Damodar. It was not possible to take the entire linga, so they carried only the top part. They took it to zambaulim, in sanguem where a new temple was built and the linga installed at garbh kudd (sacred room). Earlier this festival was organised by 10 families. But,since 1927 a committee called "Mutt Gram Sanstha Hindu sabha" was formed, which responsible to organise it. Thus,with the formation of this committee, the responsibility to celebrate Gulal , passed on to the Margao people.



Mutt Gram sanstha Hindu Sabha has a hall in Margao, which is named Shri Damodar hall,from where the program starts. The festival begins by holding a puja of the coconut at the house of Mr.purshottam keni . This tradition is observed as it is said that when the linga was begin taken from maddel, for security reasons it was kept overnight at the house of Mr.keni,from where it was taken early in the morning to zambaulim. 



Zambaulim turned pink with gulaal during the annual Gulalotsav celebrations at the Shree Damodar Temple.
The festival sees a special procession – complete with dhol beats and revelry – where the idol of Lord Damodar, seated on a palki, is taken around, with revellers smearing each other and the those carrying the idol, in pink colour en rout.

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