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Come for the scale. Stay for the love.
After two years of dormancy due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Cochin Carnival is back with a bang this year! The festival is famous for engulfing thousands of people from different walks of life in spirited revelry, and its 39th edition is no different. Diversity is the order of the day, every day. Peace is not only an ideal for the season but also a belief shared by everyone present. It's got everything one would expect from a carnival of this magnitude: processions, rallies, adventures, culinary revelry, and competitive rivalry.
In short, if you're looking for a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Fort Kochi is the place to be!
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As part of Green Cochin’s Mission to keep the carnival green throughout, single-use plastic including plastic bags, plates, glasses, and spoons will not be permitted at the venue. Separate dustbins for biodegradable and recyclable waste have been set up, and you are advised to dispose of your waste accordingly. A better option, let there be none. Additionally, to discourage people from buying plastic water bottles, drinking water stands have been set up. Drinking water will be served in glasses made of steel. You would do well to carry a reusable water bottle; steel or copper would be ideal.
After the festivities, a cleanup drive will be held with the help of locals and other volunteers. Please feel free to lend the authorities a helping hand and keep this beautiful city nice and clean. Gather up all the love you can and take it with you. Leave nothing behind but the footprints in the sand.
Organised by the District Tourism Promotion Council (DTPC), Ernakulam, the Cochin Carnival is arguably the largest annual tourist draw in Kerala. It commences on the second Sunday of December and goes on till the end of the month. Its origins can be traced back to how the Portuguese and the British celebrated the New Year in the region during their rule. But as time passed, so did the spirit of celebration. Fast forward, 38 years ago, a group of three youngsters revived the tradition to mark the UN International Youth Year (as part of the UN proclamation) in 1985.
Over four decades, Cochin Carnival has managed to carve a distinct identity for itself as a secular, participative festival for all people, irrespective of their ethnic or cultural background. ‘Peace, Progress, Participation, Environment, and Adventure’ are the guiding principles of the carnival.
The Cochin Carnival is hosted by the DTPC in collaboration with several organisations, from 25 December 2022 to 1 January 2023. Resuming after a hiatus of two years, it is a grand affair full of good cheer and not to mention, erm, attention please— gaudy shenanigans. People from all over India and the world over are expected to make Fort Kochi their temporary home for the festive season. Still not convinced? Maybe what's to follow will persuade you.
A multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, and multi-cultural symphony like none other, the carnival offers a little something to everyone. It will render your end-of-the-year celebrations alive and kicking. You'll come for the scale but you'll stay for the love. Because, even though big events are at the heart of it, big-hearted people remain its soul.
A nightly stroll through its streets, particularly KB Jacob Road, which turns into an illuminating stripe of stars is sure to leave you starry-eyed. And mingling with warm-hearted locals and out-of-town tourists, soaking in the festive spirit will further fulfil you. You will never feel too far from home even when you’re kilometres from it.
Here's what to expect for the Cochin Carnival. Set your expectations high, and you will realise that the carnival still exceeds expectations.
Keeping true to the order of things, the carnival usually kicks off on the second Sunday of December with the Ceremony of Peace and Solidarity. Tributes are paid to those who laid down their lives in service of the nation. The third Sunday commences with the hoisting of the carnival flag, after which the carnival shifts gears. Hereon, it morphs into one grand affair of visual and sensory delights, in a full-blown celebratory mode. You will find it hard not to be swept off your feet by its festive frenzy.
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day feature an eclectic lineup of events to both entertain and tickle the artistic bone in you. If you're looking to spend your Christmas in a slightly non-traditional way, there are dramas, theatre, musicals, and classical dance performances for you to choose from. But if you're the sort who loves to uphold traditions, there's an entire street waiting for you. You can team up with other like-minded people and deck the proverbial halls with boughs of holly, so to speak. After all, if you look around, you'll find that love is all around, for Christmas.
For the complete list of events visit cochincarnival.org
If you thought that was all, get ready for a surprise. There are many other events lined up and spread evenly throughout the two weeks for you to choose from. Painting exhibitions, musical events, stage programs, drama and plays, dance and fashion shows, and DJ performances, it's all in there.
But if your dial tilts heavily towards being an active participant than a mere spectator, there’s something in it for you, too. You can get down and get your hands dirty, both literally and figuratively. There is a bunch of competitive sports like football, wrestling, volleyball, kayaking, angling, and more; and other activities such as rangoli-making, mehndi or henna designs, and poems and elocution for you to showcase your secret talents. Give it everything you've got. Be ready to sleigh it. Pun intended!
You can register as a participant but do keep in mind that it is on a first-come-first-serve basis and tickets are subject to availability.
New Year's eve begins with The Burning of Pappa amid traditional music, carefree dancing, and spellbinding fireworks. Popularly referred to as Pappanji, Pappa is a 35-foot-tall effigy of Santa Claus. Its burning symbolises the passing of the old and the welcoming of the new. Scheduled to be held at the Parade Ground, it is the grandest event of the Cochin Carnival and is thronged by crowds in huge numbers.
It is followed by a magnificent after-party that goes on well beyond daybreak. Sights, sounds, smells, and splendours of all sorts are sure to put you in a spell you’ll find hard to get out of even days after it has ended.
The first day of the New Year marks an official end to the Cochin Carnival. It's colourful, captivating, and cerebral. It brings everyone together and goes for a grand culmination. Artists—folk, martial, music, masquerades, tableaux, percussions, and merrymakers—unite under one sky, take centre stage and perform their way through adorned streets while the crowds cheer on.
This big procession is made bigger and unforgettable when caparisoned elephants are thrown into the mix. In the end, the best participants bag the much-envied Mayor’s Trophy. And with that, the curtains come down. Yet the vigour lives on, long after.
The rally before the ceremony commences at 3:30 pm from Fort Kochi to the Parade Ground, followed by the Closing Ceremony that concludes at 8:00 pm.
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