On the 24th of August, every year, residents of Divar Island come out in the streets to celebrate the Bonderam festival. It’s the traditional flag festival of Goa. It is also a carnival of fancy dresses, drinks, elaborate feasts, parades of flags & floats, dancing competitions, and mock fights (yes, you read that right) using fotashes also called pop guns! Fotashes are bamboo stem toys which are used as berry shooting guns during the festival. The tradition was for the villagers to aim the fotash at the flags and fire it. Although this activity has gone down a notch ever since it became an act of mischief rather than fun. One of the biggest highlights of the festival is its floats. Floats are traditional boats or canoes used by fishermen. Villages of Divar and around the island compete to showcase the best floats attracting huge crowds from all over the country. These floats are carefully and artistically pieced together by the locals which makes for a wondrous vision to experience and witness.
The festival happens twice in the same month in two different villages of Divar Island. As part of the parade, you get to see the locals displaying their creativity that showcases their tradition, culture and lifestyle. The preparations begin weeks before with youngsters practising their moves and the elders getting other arrangements in place. The ultimate joy of this festival is to dance to the local Goan music, savour local food and enjoy the festivities that go on till late at night.
