Onam Festival

Onam is the festival celebrated by Malayalees all over the world. Onam is celebrated on the thiruvonam star of Chingam month in Malayalam calendar. It usually falls in the month of August or September. The date varied in English calendar because the festival is celebrated according to Malayalam calendar. People call it as thiruvonam. India the states is divided as per languages and the Malayalees belong to kerala state.

Atham:
 Onam is celebrated by making arts by flowers (pookalam) in front of house. It starts from atham (10 days behind Thiruvonam). Everyday morning the old pookalam will be removed and fresh one will be made. The size and quality of the pookalam (Flower art) will increase day by day and on tenth day which is Thiruvonam it will be very grand. On Thiruvonam Malayalees will do pookkalam inside their house, drawing rooms etc. This Pookalam will be removed only on third day.

Onam Legend:-
 Malayalees believe that once upon a time they where ruled by a king called Mahabali. On his rule the kerala was so prosperous that there was no famine or Beggars. All kerala was so happy that there was no fight or theft. Malayalees never lied for any thing under Mahabali Rule.

Due to this Mahabali’s name spread not only in earth but also in heaven. His spiritual powers and Blessings from the gods also increased. Due to this the king of heaven Lord indra thought that his position as king of heaven may loose to Mahabali if his power increases like this, as Mahabali looks more eligible than him to become the king of heaven. So He approached Lord Vishnu and begged for his mercy to protect the Heaven from Mahabali who is basically demon king. Lord Vishnu agreed and he has taken the form of small brahmin boy popularly known as Vamana.

As per Hindu Ideology lord Vishnu has came to earth 10 times in different form to save the people from damn kings, from bad people and to protect people from calamities. This forms is known as dhasavathara (10 forms). The last one is in the form is Lord Krishna which lord Vishnu took to kill lot of damn kings like kamsa, sisupala, narakasura. Lord Krishna also helped Pandvas to defeat kauravas in kurushethra war. On this war he advised the baghawathgeetha to Arjun which is still considers the biggest inspirational advise in the world by anyone. Lot of people still read Bhagawath geetha for their strength and spiritual necessity

On this time lord Vishnu taken Vamana avathar and came to kerala. He visited King Mahabali as a small brahmin boy. King Mahabali asked the vamana why he is visited him and what he wants. The boy said he needs three feet of land to sit and pray peacefully. Mahabali offered him more land but brahmin boy insisted in three feet of land. By this Mahabali’s teacher who was present at that time understood that this boy is not a normal boy and advised Mahabali not to grand his wish. But Mahabali was more to keep his name, as he never refused anything who ever asked. He granted that request and allowed the boy to measure the land for himself. Once the request was granted the Vamana is grown to his universal form. With his one foot he measured all of earth, and with the second foot he measured the heaven, sky and world under the earth. And He asked Mahabali where is the place to keep his third foot? . By this Mahabali understood that the boy is none other than lord Vishnu and he has shown his head and said Oh lord please keep your third foot on my head and he bowed in front of vamana so that he can keep his foot on his head.

With this Lord Vishnu was very impressed and he promised to make him king of heaven to him after the indras period. He also granted permission to Mahabali to visit kerala once upon a year on thiruvonam star of chingam month. And He pressed Mahabali to the world under earth. So Malayalees believe mahabali is visiting kerala on thiruvonam of every year.

Celebrations for Onam:
After Mahabalis period the kerala has become poor and people started suffering like all other countries. But Keralits started celebrating the onam in very grand style with lot of food, Dance, play so that Mahabali the visiting king will think that Kerala is as prosperous as when he ruled. Due to this myth the onam will celebrated with lots of food and joy all over kerala.

Onam Recipe:
 On Onam day the food is mainly vegetarian. But in some northern part of kerala on Onam day they eat special non vegetarian food. Meat sellers in Calicut, kannur will open special stalls to cater Onam demand. But most of the kerala they stick to Vegetarian dishes. Even other religions in kerala also eat only vegetarian food on onam. The vegetarian lunch on Onam is popularly known as Onasadhya.

Onasadhya:
 Onasadhya is a rice lunch served in big washed banana leaf with special vegetarian curries and side dishes made with kerala recipe. Main dishes are sambar, Avial, olan, kalan etc. The side dishes are cabbage uperi (Boiled cabbage), sharkara upery (made with sugar and banana etc).

Onam Dance:
 Thiruvathira kali is one of the famous dance in Onam. Where a group of 8 or 10 women dance in front of the houses with kerala’s traditional dress. Thiruvathira incorporate the steps of Indian classical dance along with thiruvathira songs.

Puli kali:
 Pulikali is done on most of the southern district in kerala for Onam. Puli means leopard so the pulikali means leopard play. As the name means a group of youths dressed as leopards, dance in front of another man dressed as hunter with a gun. The pulikali will be moving from streets to streets. It is one of the good entertaining programs for the participators as well as for onlookers.

Boat race:
 On various part of kerala back waters there will be boat races conducted. Some of that will we done for onam. Most of TV channels will conduct live coverage of Boat races now days'

Malayalees a true NRI community:
 If we take kerala population a significant part of Kerala's income is from Non residents Malayalees working in middle east, USA and other countries. Now a days Kerala has become so bad that kerala community is only good for conducting harthal (Conducting Protests by various political parties by forcefully closing shops, industries, schools and Government offices thus disrupting Public life and leading to public and industrial loss). The youths in kerala is so much attracted to communist ideology and they think that all these industries are came by cheating workers.And the Ruling governments also failed to provide adequate infrastructure in electricity and roads which will attract the industries. All are only interested to spend the money coming from abroad.

These non resident malayalees celebrate onam in their respective countries with lot of cultural activities. Big Malayali associations in USA and Canada normally used to  sponsor prominent Malayalam Film stars for their onam celebrations.

Onam Greeting card
 As significant Malayalees are staying outside kerala the tradition of sending greeting cards for onam is developed. The cards will available with Kerala culture and arts printed. These cards will be send to Relatives working in abroad and other states by their famil members.In modern internet world Greeting cards can be send through emails. Lot of famous greeting card websites are having a good collection of ecard for onam.

Some good collection of Onam cards are available with Onam sections on 365greetings.com.