Everyone loves a party – and Goans know how to party better than most. That’s why they have some of the best carnivals and festivals (known as Jatra) imaginable.

The dates of many of these events vary from year to year – but our staff at Colonia Santa Maria keep a list and can tell you if you will be lucky enough to catch one during your stay.

The Indian Festival of Light, Diwali, normally falls during October-November, celebrated with traditional sweets, fireworks and lamps. There are also enthusiastic burnings of effigies of the demon Narkasur.

Because one of the legacies of Portuguese rule is a large Christian population in Goa, the main feast days of Christianity are widely celebrated. The capital Panaji is especially brilliant at Christmas when there are many lights strung up to celebrate the highpoint of the Christian calendar. Children perform nativity plays and musicians provide al fresco concerts. The Feast of the Three Kings (Jan 6) and Easter (March or April) are also highpoints.

Many of the Hindu festivals occur in January – leading to the sale of thousands of sweetmeats from stalls you will see almost everywhere you go. You will often notice beautiful effigies of horses in the processions, perhaps a reminder of the time when Goa’s harbours were busy with the trade in Arabian horses destined for the cavalry forces of the Vijayanagar empire of the 14th – 15th centuries. An example is The Festival of Shantadurga Prasann when many thousands accompany the goddess in a procession of chariots. The same goddess is honoured in the Procession of Umbrellas, at Cuncolim.

In February the temple of Shri Mangesh hosts a three-day jatra and in the same month many flock to the Maruti festival in a district of Panaji. March is the season for the festival of Holi.

In Mapusa, not far from Baga, two major festivals are held each year. One is at The Church of Our Lady of Miracles, built where an ancient Hindu temple once stood, and so both Christians and Hindus join in for the annual feast held on the 16th day after Easter. The other Jatra is held at a shrine, to Lord Bodgeshwar, in paddyfields outside the town – a night-time spectacular of lights and feasting.