Keri: Since time immemorial, Dhenlo festival has been celebrated in the agro-dominated villages of Goa on the occasion of Bali Pratipada.To mark the festival, a procession of an infant Krishna idol, seated on a squarish, decorated wooden shrine, is carried out house-to-house in the villages amid singing of religious hymns to the accompaniment of musical instruments.As the procession reaches the door, a married woman from the family whose husband is alive welcomes the individual holding the shrine on his head by offering flowers to the deity and later performing the aarti.Villagers, irrespective of their ages, recite folk songs bidding farewell to the monsoon season and welcome the autumn rays.After reaping the paddy crop, tribals involved in agricultural activities express their utmost respect to infant Krishna, who too was associated with cattle rearing and engaged in agriculture as per mythology.They believe that it was infant Krishna who told the agriculturists to worship the hill as it helps them to get water for drinking and irrigation by recharging the groundwater table through the percolation of the monsoonal rain.Dinesh Usgaonkar from Caramboli said, “In our tribal-dominated village, the festival of Dhenlo is celebrated at Gawasabhat, Sakalabhat, Shirnibhat, Gudeshwar and Parkebhat, in which folk artists take part in procession with great zeal holding the shrine with infant Krishna installed on it and dancing as per traditional norms.”In Vargao of Ponda, the tribals and non-tribals, after decorating the wooden shrine at the temple of Ghadvas with infant Krishna, took it out in a procession to the main village, where it was welcomed at each house with ritualistic worship, followed by the distribution of sweets.Madhu Gaonkar from Khandola said, “Dhenlo is celebrated by the agricultural communities, who, taking part in the festival, get ready for taking a second crop of paddy as well as growing seasonal vegetables during the autumn season.”In Gavat hamlet of Cumbharzua, the youths took part in the celebration in a jubilant mood on Tuesday, playing the percussion musical instruments of Dhol and Taso along with the cymbals.A miniature representation of a cattle shed made from cow dung, along with a cattle herder, was worshipped to express their gratitude to the cattle for toiling hard in agricultural fields through ploughing, threshing and other activities.
