They're already getting ready here Fiona. I passed through Nerul on the way to Panjim a couple of days back and they were busy building the Devil Effigies - I'll take some photo's at the festival and post them on here for everyone to see.
GFF xx

GFF
photos would be great!

HI Fiona I have added a nice photograph of diwali on the upload part of the galleries......maybe you could add it to my post......your a we gem ...crawl...crawl...haha

not sure- I would have expected at least a


oh go on then!
Diwali photo

Diwali celebrations this year were fantastic. We managed to stay up until 6.00am to see the parade and the burning of the effigies.
Calangute has the best turn out apparently because the prize money for the best Devil is the highest in the state RS 25000/- for the winner. They came from all over Goa to take part, the groups that I spoke to had paid out from 15000/- to 30000/- to build their devil (an awful lot of money), especially when you consider that at the end of the evening they burn them in front of the temple. It takes about a month for them to build and then on the night of the parade it took some of the groups a couple of hours to assemble them. We're talking generators, glue guns, welding machines, speaker systems etc.
Not only do they build a Devil but also a carriage and horses to carry Lord Krishnan - he rides in front of the devil shooting his bow and arrow at it.
The Devils are massive, they have moving limbs and eyes, some talk and some even blow smoke!! Because they are so big they have to have a couple of guys with wooden poles walking in front to push up the overhead electricity cables (I'm sure they've done a full risk assesment beforehand). Anyway one of the guys was a little slow in doing his job so his Devil touched the cable with the top of it's head..........we just saw the sparks flying followed by the flames. It happened right in the middle of the High St just outside Club City, one of the guys ran in there for a bucket of water while the others bashed the flames with sticks (The firefighters back in the UK could learn a lot from these guys)!!. Anyway they bashed the fire so much that the head fell of and rolled down the street a bit - now these things are made to burn, they use Thermacol (polystyrene) to make them and they are stuffed with straw (it gives a better bonfire at the end of the evening when the Devil is burned and the New Year welcomed. Everyone stood around in typical Goan style and watched the poor guys trying to distinguish the fire - no help given but plenty of mobile phone photo's taken.

Not sure who won the prize - I couldn't keep my eyes open long enough to find out!!

I've put some photo's in the upload section for you all to see.

GFF xx

thanks GFF. I'm just disappointed that I won't see them next year as it is later on. The devils look stunning. I'll bet the boy lifting the cables wasn't very popular.

the photos can now be viewed here

Thankyou Fiona ...........GFF the photos are magic this is the first time i have missed diwali but thanks to the photies I can now see what I missed :thanksagain .colleen...

GGF the photos were great.

sorry about GGF should have read GFF.