God’s own country to miss Kummattikali mask dance this Onam
The fabled mask dance of Kerala, performed with unstinted zest on every onam will not be performed this year owing to social distancing norms. Kummattikali is a traditional folk dance of Kerala performed mainly on the harvest festival, its more like a dance of seekers in in which performers wearing surrealistic colourful masks of deities like Krishnna, Kali, Ganesha, Garuda or mythological figures dance their way from one house to anothers asking food items or cash with supplication.
The overall livery of the performers is made of bushes or clumps of shrubs and masks are carved out from various endemic trees like Jackfruit, Hog plum, Saprophyte etc.The elusive shrubs used in making costumes is called Kummatti Pallu which is beilved to have medicinal qualities.
Factually there is no historical record of Kummattikali dance, some believe it to have started 150 years ago but according to mythological legend Siva, the presiding deity of the Vadakkunnathan Temple at the heart of Thrissur, once demanded his bhutas to perform Kummattikali celebrating the triumph of devas over the asuras.
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