Dancing their way into record books in Kerala

Mangalore Today News Network

Thiruvananathapuram, Aug 05, 2016: One of the oldest Christian traditional art forms in Kerala may find its way into the record books soon.

‘Margam Kali,’ which has close ties to the early Christian traditions of Kerala, will be performed by 1,000 women at the annual feast of Our Lady of Assumption Forane Church, a Latin Christian church at Vlathankara, near Neyattinkara.

“It’s their dedication to Mary Mother of Jesus.  The performance will likely make it to the record books,” church vicar Fr Anil Kumar S M said.

The feast will be held from August 6 to August 15, and the performance is slated to be held at 6 pm on August 6. “Southern Kerala does not have a Margam Kali tradition as such. So we roped in women from the rural areas and trained them,” he said.

According to church officials, the biggest mass Margam Kali performance so far featured only 600 women.Our Lady of Assumption Forane Church comes under Neyyatinkara Diocese and traces its history to the 18th century.

Till 1940, the prayers were recited in Tamil and the Holy Mass in Latin. For the Margam Kali performance, the church has roped in a coach who has trained 15 women. These fifteen women will in turn associate with the 33 family units under the church to train the rest it is reported.

“Participants right from eight to eighty-year-old will be part of the event,” Fr Anil Kumar said. Another big attraction of this year’s festivities is an exhibition of about 30,000 rosaries (Prayer beads) from 64 countries. Curtains will come down on the feast on August 22.