Malayalam calender Chingam(August -September). This festival depicts the
culture and tradition of Kerala. The story goes this way – There was a
Demon King Mahabali who ruled the world, during his reign Kerala witnessed
the Golden era. There was prosperity and happiness at every home. Lord
Indra became jealous of Mahabali as he held a high respect in the hearts of the
people. So Mahavishnu takes the form of Vamana, tricks him by asking for
three feet of land and sends him to Pathalam. To this day it is believed
that Mahabali visits every home on Onam to see his people and would return
happily only when there is joy, prosperity and celebrations.
In Kerala, the festival is celebrated for 10 days. Boat race, pookollams,
and several other traditional games brings the festive spirit in air. Being
bought up outside Kerala, I don't remember the celebrations there, or was
to young to have them registered in my memory. All thanks to my mother for
sharing her memories and the story behind Onam.
We do celebrate it here with a few malayalee families nearby, we brighten up the festival mood with Onapookkalams and gather for
an Onasadya on Thiruvonam (2nd day) . The specialty of Onasadya is, its served on banana leaves and
includes a number of dishes- papadam, sambhar, parippu curry, aviyal,
thoran (beans, cabbage), vallarika, ginger/mango pickles, curd, payasam,
banana chips, sarkarapurati are among the famous. It's an epitome to
celebrate Onam with a lunch served on banana leaf, no matter how rich one
is. There's a lot of effort that goes into the
preparation of this simple, vegetarian, traditional meal. It's time for me
to take a break, Onam is up in air. :):)
Onasamsakal to one and all.
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