Christmas Festivals

Christmas is celebrated world over by the Christians as the day of the birth of Jesus Christ. The exact date of Jesus birth is not known, but most Christians observe December 25th as his birthdate.Special services are held on this day in the churches which are attended by Christians and also others .In fact Christmas is a universal festival. During the season they exchange gifts and decorate their homes with holly, mistletoe, and Christmas trees. The word Christmas comes from cristes maese, an early English phrase that means Mass of Christ.

For most Christians, the Christmas season begins on the Sunday nearest to November 30th. This date is the feast day of St Andrew, one of the 12 apostles of Christ. The nearest Sunday is the first day of Advent a four-week period during which Christians prepare for the celebrations of Christmas. The word advent means a coming and refers to the coming o Jesus on Christmas day. In olden days weddings were not celebrated during advent and Gloria is not said during the mass. It is on the Christmas midnight mass announces the birth of Jesus by singing Gloria. In the same way no religious Feasts are celebrated on Advent Sunday. These are held on Monday.

Come December and Christians in Goa get set to celebrate the Christmas festival in a big way. Much has changed during the years, from traditional homely to modern commercialized. From live branches of pine trees to beautifully created and a variety of folding and washable plastic and some other synthetic materials. The traditional Christmas tree in Goa was a branch of pine trees, which was picked up a day or two before the Christmas day and decorated with different toys. Later different colored balls, bells, stars, were added and these would vary in size.

Pinaca and dodol have as ingredient, the tasty Goan jaggery.And in case of dodol a little rice flour is cooked in coconut juice to which jaggery is added.