The people of Ernakulam are found to be dynamic, fun loving and the most fashion conscious folk in Kerala.They are forward, progressive minded and not resisting change, unlike the residents in the other parts.As for cuisine, appam is popular, eaten with `stew sometimes with egg mixed into the batter-with thick coconut milk arid sugar and sometimes with the North Kerala specialty meen koottan or `Fish in Coconut Sauce. Lamb `Stew is served in this meal as well with neipathal, a star fish shaped fried bread made with ground rice. The Moplah fishermen who are muslims enjoy eating their Poottu with well spiced meat. Kochiites also have a passion for shell fish.
The Moplahs are not the only fishermen in Kerala. Further down the coast is the fishing village of Vizhinjam, where about a hundred families all Latin Christians live along sandy lines.The deer and pomfret and prawns all end up in the kitchen in the form of meen pappas, fish cooked with curry leaves and coconut milk or meen molee, fish cooked with onions.
The people of Kochi belong to all castes and communities that have ceremonies to celebrate every important incident in their life and many of them, having been practised for centuries,have survived till date.`Namakaranam is the naming ceremony preformed within a month of the childs birth. Annaprasanam feeding of rice - or chorunu takes place in the sixth month of the child. Vidyarambham or initiation into the letters of the alphabet is performed in the third or fourth year of the child. `Upanayanam ,an initiation ceremony is performed by all Brahmins when the boy is invested with the holy thread.
The Hindus of the city worship all the major Gods and Goddesses of the Hindu pantheon as well as several minor deities. Siva, Vishnu, Bhagavathi Sastha, Subramanya and Ganapathi are the major deities. The minor deities include Parasurama, Brahma, Hanuman, Saraswathy, Mariamman, Madan etc. Apart from the worship of these deities, the Hindus have also evolved through the ages such practices as Naga worship, ancestor worship, demon worship and tree worship which persist to this day. Centers of worship have sprung up in different parts of Kochi based on the worship of various deities and the religious practices mentioned above.
