Sushila Sawant Mendes
As the fun and frolic of Carnival fills the air in the towns and cities of Goa, the villages look forward to Intruz with equal anticipation. At the heart of these celebrations is the mell, essentially a group of villagers who move in procession from one ward to another with musical instruments, songs and lively performances known as khells, musical street plays once patronised by bhatkars, the landed gentry, and today supported by village clubs or local leaders.
The word Intruz is derived from the Portuguese entrudo, meaning “to enter”. After a period of merriment, Goan Catholics symbolically ‘enter’ the season of Lent. This period coincides with the Shigmo or Shishirotsava celebrations observed elsewhere in Goa, revealing how both calendars intersect in meaningful ways.
To understand Intruz fully, one must look at Goa’s pre-Portuguese cultural foundations, particularly institutions such as the mand and the gaunkari system. Wherever Goans migrate, they carry with them their ganvpon or village identity. Intruz continues to be celebrated with particular enthusiasm in villages such as Assolna, Velim, Ambelim and Fatorda.
The festival begins at the mand, a sacred community space. A pedestal oil lamp is lit before the cross, followed by collective prayers. A coconut is broken and its water sprinkled as an offering, a ritual that clearly echoes older Hindu customs while being integrated into Christian practice.
In Dongri village, celebrations commence with invocations to Jesus and Mary and conclude with the words, “Sarvahi Dev ekachi re”, meaning all gods are one. This simple phrase captures the essence of Goa’s cultural hybridity. The main event is the mell procession, which in Dongri first visits the chief temple. The head of each Hindu household welcomes the group by lighting a traditional oil lamp and presenting a thali of coconuts, betel leaves, betel nut, rice grains and a coin. Here, the blending of the Hindu past and the Catholic present is not merely symbolic but actively lived.
The Shigmya mand provides moral and spiritual support to the entire community. During Intruz, invocations once addressed to Goddess Santeri are replaced by prayers to the Christian Saibin, yet the shared sacred space remains unchanged. In many villages, Hindus and Christians continue to share a common mand. In Shivoli, for instance, the annual jagor is organised for the divine spirit Jagoryo, where even local rulers were once playfully satirised through jagars.
The chant of ancestral Hindu surnames during the mell in Velim, such as “Ho mell re Naikalo”, recalls earlier identities, even when those surnames have since changed, for example to Caeiro. In some wards, the ritual of vat ugti korup, literally opening the way of the mell, involves breaking a coconut, once again blending Hindu rites with Catholic festivities.
In Betul, pre-Christian traditions are visible in crosses that symbolise earlier deities, transforming them into layered and polysemic symbols. One finds the Betallacho Khuris, Odu oaikacho Khuris, Baradkarinicho Khuris, the cross of Hapshu and even a cross associated with the Pir, each reflecting the merging of belief systems.
On Intruz Sunday in Dongri, Catholics celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Success, locally known as Susette Saibin. Hindus participate by offering to carry the statue in procession. Similarly, the palki (chariot) of Shri Shasti Shantadurga, locally called Satima, is revered across communities as a form of the Goddess Sati. Such shared reverence blurs strict religious boundaries and reinforces a collective identity.
A distinctive feature of Intruz is the performance of khells. These musical skits often include satire and irreverent humour aimed at authority figures. During the Portuguese period, performers even required licences to stage them. Some villages present Dashavatari khells based on Puranic tales, while Catholic khells tend to be farcical and musical, full of social commentary. Interestingly, mand songs rarely praise rulers, except in Chandor, where the Mussol dance khell, performed by converted Kshatriyas, refers to Harihara I and Bukka Raya I, founders of the Vijayanagara Empire.
Ultimately, Intruz brings together the past and the present through folk culture, music and collective celebration. The festival offers a lens through which Goa’s identity can be understood as a confluence of faiths living together in harmony. The mells and khells, vibrant and multi-dimensional, mirror the deep sensibilities of the people, their longing to connect with their heritage while continually reshaping their identity within a new religious and cultural framework.
(The writer is an author and
a senior faculty of history)
