COVID-19 Lockdown: No pomp and festivities at Thrissur Pooram this year

Amid the COVID-19 lockdown curbs, the iconic 'Thrissur Pooram', was held on Saturday in a low key manner in Kerala. All other events related to the Thrissur pooram, including the exhibition, mini-poorams also stood cancelled.

Thrissur: The soil of Lord Vadakkumnathan remained silent on Thrissur Pooram day. No percussion ensembled playing to the peak, no swinging heads, and swishing hands to the rhythm of the percussionists.

With the COVID-19 lockdown, Thrissur Pooram - arguably the most popular temple festival of Kerala, which is known for its magnificence and fiesta, and the masses that throng the Thekkinkadu Maidanam to participate in the festive fervour - is being celebrated in the minds of all Pooram lovers this year.

Pooram lovers have been longing for this year’s festival glory right from the time the gods and goddesses ‘exchanged their customary formalities’ and went back to their own abodes marking a culmination of the last year’s festival.

However, Thrissivaperoor (the olden name of Thrissur) city remained calm and seemed deserted on this year’s Pooram day. The Pooram was held sans pomp and festivities, for the first time in the history. Only the rituals as part of the Pooram have been performed absolutely without the masses gathering and any other festive frills, owing to the lockdown.

Every year, the main organisers, Thiruvambadi and Paramekkavu Devaswoms, and the eight Ghadaka Temples (constituent small temples), begin their preparations well in advance, months before the next year’s Pooram. They start arranging for the decor and for the percussionists who are to perform. It is being said that each and every child brought up in the vicinity matures to become a Pooram lover as he sees the preparations well in advance and eagerly waits for the event, every year.

Nandakishor, a Chakyarkoothu (a temple art form) artist and actor said, “Let coronavirus leave first, Thekkottirakkam can wait.” Thekkottirakkam is the spectacular event of the festival where the deity is taken out in procession on adorned elephants, accompanied by the percussion ensembles, through the South (Thekku) Tower Gate of the Temple complex.

Other major attractions of Thrissur Pooram are Pandi Melam (a classical percussion ensemble led by Chenda instrument) and Elanjithara Melam, also a percussion ensemble performed by a large posse of percussion artistes under the Ilanji tree in the courtyard of Vadakkunnahtan temple. Referred to as Vadya Kulapathi (the leader of percussion orchestra) of the century, Padma Shree Peruvanam Kuttan Marar usually leads the ensembles including Pandi and Elanjithara melam for Thrissur Pooram.

Though Peruvanam Kuttan Marar remains at home due to the coronavirus lockdown now, he is waiting for the next year’s festival to make up for the missed one with full fervour.

Like the Pooram lovers, the organisers are also downhearted at the conduct of the first Pooram with no grandeur. They also shared their despair as the COVID-19 took away the spirit of Pooram, which otherwise would have been the most hectic time of the year for them.