Shimga in Mumbai: Inside the Koli community’s unique Holi celebrations

While much of the city gears up for colour play, water balloons and neighbourhood parties during Holi, Mumbai’s original fishing communities celebrate the festival in a very different spirit. Among the Kolis, the celebration is known as Shimga — and if you spend an evening inside one of the city’s historic fishing villages, you realise quickly that it is less about spectacle and more about people coming together.

Walk into Worli Koliwada on the evening of the celebrations and the festival doesn’t hit you all at once. It unfolds gradually through small moments — neighbours chatting in narrow lanes, children hovering around courtyards where preparations are underway, and the distant sound of the sea never too far away.

Across settlements such as Worli Koliwada, Versova Koliwada and Mahim Koliwada, Shimga today usually stretches over three to five evenings. In older Konkan traditions the festivities lasted nearly ten days, but the pace of modern Mumbai has shortened the calendar — not the spirit.

Beginning with the sacred fire

Preparations begin hours before the ritual itself.

In a courtyard inside the koliwada, a tall wooden pole wrapped in marigold garlands stands at the centre — the focal point for Holika Dahan, the ceremonial bonfire that marks the beginning of Holi. Around its base, women and children sit on the ground patiently placing petals one by one, building an intricate rangoli made entirely of flowers. Reds, yellows and whites slowly spread across the ground in circular patterns as the design grows larger.

The act is quiet and unhurried — less like festival decoration and more like a shared neighbourhood ritual.

For the fishing community, the prayers offered during this moment carry a deeper meaning. Along with the traditional symbolism of purification and renewal, families also seek blessings for calm seas, safe journeys and abundant catch in the months ahead.

Not far away, the village’s guardian deity — Sati Asra Devi — sits in a beautifully decorated shrine. Draped in a bright nauvari sari and layered jewellery, the idol is framed by a tall arch of marigold and rose garlands. For many residents of the koliwada, the goddess represents protection — watching over the village and the fishermen who head out into the Arabian Sea before dawn.

Music, dance and community evenings

Once the sacred fire ritual is complete, the mood gradually shifts.

Over the next few evenings, the narrow lanes of the koliwada begin to pulse with music and movement. Traditional percussion instruments echo through the neighbourhood while residents gather in courtyards and open spaces.

But the most striking part of Shimga is the way everyone participates. This isn’t a performance staged for an audience. Someone starts a rhythm, a few people begin dancing, and within minutes neighbours join in, forming circles that grow larger as more people step forward.

Folk songs — often in Marathi and Koli dialects — celebrate everyday life in the fishing community: the sea, the boats, and the unpredictable rhythms of coastal living.

Even the harbour seems to echo the festive mood. At the jetty in Worli Koliwada, fishing boats are dressed for the occasion with bright strips of fabric tied across their frames and colourful flags fluttering in the sea breeze. The decorations transform the usually hardworking vessels into something festive, adding bursts of colour to the waterfront.

When colour takes a back seat

For visitors expecting the usual scenes of coloured powder flying through the air, Shimga can feel surprisingly restrained.

Unlike mainstream urban celebrations of Holi, colour is not the centrepiece here. While dry colours may make an appearance later — often closer to Rang Panchami — they remain secondary to the rituals, music and gatherings that define the festival.

The emphasis is on participation rather than spectacle. In Shimga, the celebration belongs to the community.

A festival rooted in the sea

Perhaps the most revealing moments of the evening are the quiet ones happening alongside the celebrations.

Down at the jetty, a fisherman spreads out a pale green fishing net across the concrete slope leading to the harbour, carefully untangling and checking the mesh before the next outing. Behind him, rows of painted boats rock gently against the water — some decorated with colourful streamers for the festival.

A few lanes away, another small scene unfolds. Beneath a crucifix of Jesus Christ, two boys sit casually on the steps of a small tiled chapel, chatting as the moon rises above the roofline. The moment feels entirely ordinary — and that ordinariness is precisely what makes it memorable.

Because in villages like Worli Koliwada, Shimga does not interrupt everyday life. It grows naturally out of it.

Fishing nets still need to be prepared. Boats must be ready for the next tide. Children gather wherever there is space to sit and talk.

And somewhere in the middle of it all, the community comes together — around a fire, a song, a shared laugh — to celebrate a festival that has bound these coastal neighbourhoods together for generations.

In that sense, Koli Holi is not just another festival on Mumbai’s crowded calendar. It is a living reminder of the city’s original maritime culture, where celebration, livelihood and community remain inseparable.

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