When the Festival Drums Beat: Demystifying Festival Cuisine in Kerala

Abstract

Food and culture are inextricably bound together. The food we eat carries the trait of our culture. Though unnoticed, the food that we eat every day and the special cuisine that we prepare for festivals, all reveal we are a part of the invisible cultural link. The cuisine of a region mirrors its history, tradition, culture and lifestyle. Kerala is often described as a “museum of races and cultures”. In Kerala Hinduism, Christianity and Islam are the main religions followed by a majority of people. A cursory look at the festival cuisine of these communities reveals a drastic difference in culture. While the Hindus stick on to vegetarian sadya on festival days, Christians and Muslims celebrate with non-vegetarian food. In an analogous geographic milieu, the gastronomic alterations of different communities provide an insight that food habits and culture are things that are kept intact to be handed down to generations. This paper tries to analyse the trajectories of history and culture that has moulded the food habits of the main communities in Kerala.