iNational Folk Museum of KoreaJongno-gu
Happy Onam: A Festival for All, the Joy of Dancing Together
Kerala's Onam harvest festival explored through floral arrangements, ritual objects, festive foods and the Kummattikali masked dance, drawing parallels with Korea's Chuseok.
More in Seoul
You come face to face with Thalla, a toothless old woman who leads the masked Kummattikali dancers through village lanes in Keralam, southern India, every Onam. Beside her hang Thantha, the village grandfather, and gods: Shiva with a cobra on his head, Narasimha with a lion's head.
The museum's researchers collected all this in Thrissur in September 2025, for the second edition of its world-festival series after Rio Carnival. Around the masks are the floral Pookkalam circles, a clay Thrikkakara Appan figure, brass ritual lamps and the Sadya feast of about twenty dishes on a banana leaf. Wall text links Onam to Chuseok: harvest timing, thanks to ancestors, shared food. Even the team's receipt for a USD 5 parade contribution is in a case, more care than your expense claims ever got.
Entry is free with no booking. It's on the second floor of the Paju open storage in Heyri, not Gyeongbokgung: Tuesday to Sunday 10am to 6pm, bus 2200 from Hongik Univ. Station. Closes 6 December.
Look for
The Thalla mask
Look for the comically toothless old woman who leads the Kummattikali troupe, hung beside Thantha, her wise-elder partner.
Shiva
A mask with a cobra coiled on top of the head and a third eye on the forehead.
Madurai Meenakshi
The warrior-queen goddess of Madurai, with a green face and a radiant halo around it.
Narasimha
Vishnu's fourth avatar, a lion's head on a human body, the demon-slayer of Hindu myth.
The fieldwork paperwork
A Thrissur restaurant's flyer for its Sadya feast and a receipt for a USD 5 contribution to a modern Kummattikali parade in Puthurkkara village, both picked up in September 2025.
Good for
- Cheap Culture
- Locals Who've Seen It All
- Nerding Out
Skip if
You only have time for central Seoul: the show is at the Paju branch in Heyri, not Gyeongbokgung.
Also at National Folk Museum of Korea
On now nearby
Nearby
Image credits
9
- Happy Onam: A Festival for All, the Joy of Dancing TogetherCourtesy of National Folk Museum of Korea
- MMCA×LG OLED Series 2026: Christine Sun KimCourtesy of MMCA Seoul
- Korea Artist Prize 2026Courtesy of MMCA Seoul
- Do Ho SuhCourtesy of the artist; Lehmann Maupin, New York, Seoul, and London; Victoria Miro © Do Ho Suh
- National Folk Museum of KoreaGaël Chardon, CC BY-SA 2.0
- MMCA Seouljens kuu, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
- Art Sonje CenterBonnielou2013 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- National Palace Museum of KoreaJinho Jung, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
- Seoul Museum of Craft ArtYoungjin, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0