Arti's Blog

St. Jacinto Island. Goa is full of Natural Beauties. San Jacinto Island is one of the few beautiful  inhabited  islands of Goa i n the estuary of the Zuari River on the west coast of the Indian peninsula .  This lesser known Goan treasure, is a few kilometres away from the Dabolim International Airport.  Major part of the island still remains under forest cover with few old houses. Amidst all this is a beautiful old white church which overlooks the waters of the Zuari River towards the east which can be easily seen from the Vasco-Panjim National Highway. Local citizens call this church the St. Hyacinthi Cathedral which is found open only on Sundays and  celebrates its  feast on the last Sunday of September. A lesser known fact is the existence of an underground tunnel which  connects the old chapel with Siridao,  located  almost parallel on Panjim side. The island is connected with the main road by a bridge named Silve...

BANASTARIM MATOLI Goa has many eco-traditions, one of the most significant of which is the matoli tradition followed during the festival of Ganesh Chaturthi. The eco-tradition reflects society’s relationship with nature, with each individual custom dedicated of particular aspects of flora and fauna. Matoli is much more than a decorative canopy laid out above the idol of Lord Ganesh during the festival. Fashioned out of wood, it is decorated with seasonal floral wealth that showcases the state’s indigenous plant diversity with emphasizes on medicinal plants.Both wild and cultivated leaves, flowers, fruits and tubers are used to decorate the matoli. The tradition forms an informal means of passing on knowledge of plants and their uses from one generation to another. The matoli consists of all the fruits and vegetables that are available during the season. A traditional matoli consists of fruits like chikoo, banana, orange, melon, mango called porus ambe, apple, guava, bre...