So, the end of 2024 is nearly here and the start of 2025… Personally, I have had a pretty good year when things have gone largely to plan. I even managed to keep a couple of resolutions, but not all of them!

This morning we headed out on the scooter to get some supplies from the shop (milk, bread etc) and some cash – on the way to Varca, we noticed in each village there were groups of young men / boys & girls with what I would describe as “guys” outside houses, collecting money (much like the tradition of “penny for the guy” which you don’t see so much of at home now around bonfire night), there were loads of them everywhere… not something we remember from last time we were here for new year in North Goa.

Anyway, we decided we would give our money to the little kids in our village of Fatrade… unfortunately, they were not able to tell us much about why everyone was doing this – think they were a bit shy! See photo below!

It wasn’t until we got,to the beach a bit later this afternoon that we found out what it was all about – here’s info I found on the Internet!

“As the year draws to a close on December 31, one sees the local boys gather together in every village, as they fashion a scarecrow. But wait! Is it really a scarecrow? Not exactly! It’s an ‘Old Man‘ that they are creating. 

The preparations for this are done on December 30 or 31 every year. The local boys get together and build an ‘Old Man’ using dry grass, paper, sticks and old clothes. When done, finishing touches are added to ‘him’, and ‘he’ is made to sit on a chair, or cycle, holding an empty bottle of alcohol.

The boys then display the ‘Old Man’ in a prominent location in their respective villages. And, there he remains seated, while loud fun music plays on, while the boys solicit money from passers-by and traffic. 

The ‘Old Man’ is burnt exactly as the clock strikes 12 midnight. The ‘Old Man’ represents all the sorrows and bad that happened to us during the past year, and by burning the old man, we ‘burn’ all these negative things and start a fresh new year on a positive note.

Truly a creative way to begin a New Year!”

So, there you go – if you want rid yourself of any negativity you’ve experienced this year build yourself an “old man” & set him on fire later tonight when the clock strikes 12!

On the way to the beach, we looked for a tailors which I had spotted the other day as I wanted to find out if they could copy a pair of trousers that I really like… but we couldn’t find it 😕 (although we spotted it on the way back so will do that another day now). We did pop into the jewellery makers that Pete went into yesterday as I wanted a pendant made… more to follow on this when I know I am happy with what they are doing!

We are just about to get ready to go out for dinner… tonight we are going to head to Ida’s as she talked about having a party the other day… however, we’ve not been in for a few days so not sure if that’s happening – it doesn’t really matter, we will have some nice food, a few bevvies and come home if there’s nowt going on (unlikely though!) – so Happy New Year to anyone who reads this! We hope that 2025 is kind to you &, if it’s not, we wish you the strength to deal with whatever life throws at you!

We just saw the fireworks from Oz on the BBC news… as we will be watching any fireworks here later (it’s now just under 4 hours until New Year here in Goa!) and not filming them, here’s a film of the fireworks we enjoyed with my Mum and Dad back in 2021 almost a year after they had moved next door to us in Yorkshire… me & my Dad had a shared love of fireworks and, if you watch to the end and listen carefully, as well as me “woo-hooing”, you’ll also hear my Dad wishing everyone a “Happy New Year” – what a special recording that is for me now that he has gone! Enjoy everyone whatever you might be doing this evening – even if it’s an early night! 😘