About Novidade in Goa
Goa Novidade is celebrated in the Indian months of Bhadra-Pada. The parish priest himself harvests sheaf of rice and returns with it to the Church, Local people accompany him with music, fire works and Jubilation. This ceremony called as Novidade, and it is celebrated in every village, made to the church and the paddy specially blessed by the God. It has been an old Goan tradition that the village of Taligao has the privilege of the first harvest. The women folk of Goa's earliest tribal settlers perform a dance called Bhandup during the second half of the month of Bandra-Pada.