Culture and Customs
Entertainment
Gap Year in Cochin, India Kathakali is an individual style of dance-drama that has emerged as a 'people's theatre' from the traditional dances of the past. The plays were performed by the 'Rajah's' own company of actors not only in temples and courts but from village to village and house to house. The new art form (called Ramanattam) soon became very popular all over the 'Malayalam' (Keralan) speaking area. The feudal chieftains of 'Malabar' (as the area was then called) began to vie with one another in their efforts to produce the best Kathakali troupes and this competition contributed to the rapid development of the art in a very short period. There are dances held every evening in Cochin and are spectacular to watch, training takes years and the dancers take up to 3 hours just to have their make up done!
Kerala has a well-developed health care system and besides the allopathic system of medicine it is famous for its ayurvedic concoctions and massages. Ayurveda is now being recognised in the West as a complimentary medicine alongside traditional healing methods but as a traveller one needs to be discerning about where you go as several massage parlours have sprouted riding on the fame of the ayurvedic massages but not really offering the genuine product.
Multi-cuisine restaurants can be found in abundance alongside 5 star hotels offering all the usual facilities.
Festivals & Culture
With Kochi being a melting pot of different religions - Hinduism 47%, Christianity 35%, and Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Sikhism and Buddhism in lesser numbers - it sometimes feels as if every other day is a festival!
Appropriate to its multi-ethnic composition, Kochi celebrates traditional Kerala festivals like Onam (harvest festival) and Vishu along with North Indian Hindu festivals like Holi and Diwali with great fervour. Christian and Islamic festivals like Christmas, Easter, Eid ul-Fitr and Milad-e-sherif are also celebrated. A merry making fest called the Cochin Carnival is celebrated at Fort Kochi during the last ten days of December.
The city once had a large Jewish community, known as the Malabar Yehuden - and now increasingly as Cochin Jews - that figured prominently in Kochi's business and economic strata. Most Cochin Jews now live in Israel.
Food
The Keralites, being a coastal state, have a staple diet of fish of which there are many variations on the theme; wrapped in banana leaves with spices and coconut and steamed, cooked in coconut milk and spices, served with a spicy tomato and coconut gravy or fried whole with a chili massala. You may have noticed that many of the dishes include coconut which is found in great abundance here, if you don't like coconut you may have trouble here!
Generally food is prepared hot and spicy, although European tastes are much more catered for now. There are many vegetarian dishes around but it has to be said that Keralites are very partial to non-vegetarian food. In Cochin all manner of food is available for every taste - Chinese, Thai, Italian, North Indian and continental.