Hidden culture

Goa is known as a multi-ethnic state with a majority of Hindu and Muslims along with Catholic minority. All religious people live in harmony. Goa is one of the famous tourist destination which attracts thousands of tourist all over India. Apart from that Goa is known for its cultural heritage. Goan art and architecture attracts thousand of eyes. One of the important aspect of Goan cultural heritage includes folk dances. Goan folk dances bear a tradition of thousand of years, characterized by numerable forms performed by and reflecting lifestyles, cultures and aspirations of different religious and castes of goan society. Both women and men are involved in folk dances. Women perform a number of traditional dances such as Dekni, Fugdi, Dhalo, Lamp dance, etc. Kunbi is a tribal folk dance. Morulo is another traditional folk dance presented by the backward community during Shigmo. Other folk dances includes Goff, Ranmale, Zagor, etc.

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Folk Musical Instruments

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Musical instruments plays very important role in folk dances of Goa. They are as follows:- 1) Ghumat An earthern pot having two mouths,  out of which one is big and the other one is narrow. The bigger mouth is covered with monitor lizard-skin, locally called as 'Gaar'. 2) Shamel This instrument always accompanies the 'Ghumat'. The base of the Shamel is  carved out of 'Khair' wood and the wooden base is covered with a skin of She-goat . It is played with the help of two thin cane sticks of around 30-35 cm in length. 3) Harmonium Harmonium is one the most popular melody instruments provides support for singing part of dance as well as devotional and theatre music. 4) Kaansalem Kaansalem consists of two big gongs made of Kaashem(Bronze) and brass. The gongs are thick and flat, usually attached with a block of coir. The Kaansalem produces a flat sound to match the pitch of the percussion instruments like Ghumat and Shamel. 5) Pakhwaaj The Pak...
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Fugdi

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All women dances in Goa are referred to as 'Fugdi'. There are a few annual events where essentially the fugdi is to be performed. The fugdi performed by common women folk at the rural and tribal level is more skillful and vigorous, consisting different varieties. Such varieties are inspired by the festivals of Dhillo, Dhaalo and Chavath to obtain blessings from lord Ganesh. The convention followed by the village folk is to perform the Fugdi in front of Ganesh idol. It is also considered to be a form of worship. For the understanding of the Fugdi, one should be familiar with the daily routine of the folk life, which involves hard labour and an imaginative spirit. The actions, movements, footsteps,hand gestures, beats of clapping, patterns, formations, dealings with co-dancers; every thing is associated to their lifestyle. Different household acts are expressed at the time of dancing the fugdi. But this depicted in absolute improvised manner. Joining depicted by two to ...
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Kalshi Fugdi

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Kalshi fugdi is an interesting form of dance performed by the tribal women. Kalshi is a copper pot used to store or carry water from a well, spring or a 'Naalaa' (locally known as Vhaal). During the summer, the women engage themselves to grow a vegetable farm. For watering vegetables, water has to be caried from a distance many of the times. While going back to the watershed, they dance with empty Kalshi(pot). The Kalshi is caught by both the hands and on the rhythm of songs sung by the participants, the Kalshi is moved up and down, relieved from the hands and caught again. While doing so, the bangles of brass metal hit the pot and create a sweet sound. At he end of the dance, the mouth of the pot is blown forcefully by moving the pot all around, up and down cautiously with rhythmic steps. This blowing suggests that the pot should not remain empty forever. The narration spells out this meaning.
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