Pandemic washes away the usual vibrancy of Moolam Boat Race

The 400-year-old Moolam Boat Race, which marks Kerala’s boat racing season, is reduced to a few customary rituals in 2021 owing to the Coronavirus pandemic

Drum beats (chenda melam), boat songs (vanchi pattu), and snake boat (chundan vallom) are integral to the ceremonial start of the Moolam Boat Race, the first in Kerala’s boat race season. Traditionally held on Moolam Day in the Malayalam month of Midhunam, it falls on June 24 this year. However, the pandemic has put paid to the traditional colour and festivity. The 400-year-old event is held to acknowledge the help of a Christian family in the consecration of the Krishna idol at the Ambalappuzha temple. Every year it would begin with a water carnival, declared by the Raja of Chempakasseri. This also signals preparations for the season’s other races of which the most famous is the Nehru Boat Race (on the second Sunday of August) and the latest, IPL-styled Champions Boat League, launched three years ago. This year, “only customary rituals associated with the Moolam Boat Race at Champakkulam will be followed due to the ongoing pandemic,” says K Naveen Babu, Tahsildar of Kuttanad.