India GO
Sao Joao in Goa
The day the villages leap into wells the monsoon has just filled
Watch young men in leaf-and-fruit crowns leap into village wells on St John the Baptist's feast (or join them, if a household invites you), then the decorated boat parade on the Chapora at Siolim.
Where to watch
Siolim, Anjuna, Assagao, Calangute and villages across Bardez; the boat festival is on the Chapora river at Siolim
🎟 Free viewing
- The whole feast is free and public:
- The riverbank by St Anthony's Church in Siolim, where the decorated boats arrive up the Chapora from Chapora jetty and the stage programme runs in the afternoon
- Village lanes in Siolim, Anjuna and Assagao from about noon, for the kopel crowns and the leap into the wells; go into a courtyard only when a household invites you
🗓 Programme
Morning
Mass for the Nativity of St John the Baptist
Parish churches across Bardez and Salcete
Midday
Young men in kopel (crowns woven from leaves, fruit and wild flowers) go from house to house and then jump into the wells, streams and ponds that the monsoon has just filled, in memory of John leaping in Elizabeth's womb. Households give them feni and fruit
Villages across Goa, Siolim and Anjuna most of all
Afternoon
At Siolim the sangodd (decorated boats lashed together in pairs) parade up the Chapora river with singing and mando performances aboard
Siolim, Chapora river