Onam 2027 Countdown

Onam is the grand harvest festival of Kerala in southern India, a ten-day celebration famed for flower carpets, a magnificent feast and boat races.

History

Onam is the most important festival of Kerala, celebrated at the start of the Malayalam month of Chingam, usually in late August or September. Its central legend tells of the beloved and benevolent King Mahabali (Maveli), whose reign was remembered as a golden age of equality and plenty. In the story as told in Kerala, the gods grew uneasy at his power, and Vishnu, in his dwarf incarnation Vamana, asked the king for three paces of land, then grew to span the earth and sky and sent Mahabali to the netherworld with his third step — granting him, for his devotion, the right to return to his people once a year. Onam is the joyful welcome his subjects prepare for that homecoming, celebrated across the state and by Malayalis worldwide. Though rooted in this ancient story, Onam is embraced today by Keralites of all faiths as the state's official festival of the harvest. It unfolds over ten days, from Atham — opened by the Athachamayam procession of floats, elephants and folk arts at Tripunithura near Kochi — to the main day of Thiruvonam. Each morning the pookalam flower carpet at the doorstep grows by another ring, and on Thiruvonam small clay pyramids called Onathappan, representing Vamana and Mahabali, are set at its centre. Families wear new clothes (onakkodi) and sit down to the Onasadya, a vegetarian feast of two dozen or more dishes served on a banana leaf and finished with payasam. The days that follow bring Pulikali, Thrissur's 'tiger dance' of painted performers, and the Aranmula snake-boat race on the Pamba river, while the state capital, Thiruvananthapuram, stages a week of cultural programmes ending in a grand procession. Thiruvonam is the day on which the Thiruvonam star (Shravana) falls in the month of Chingam, which is why the festival drifts between late August and mid-September. Older customs survive alongside the civic spectacle: in northern Kerala's Malabar region the Onapottan, a masked and painted figure carrying a palm-leaf umbrella, visits homes to bless households; ceremonial painted bows, the Onavillu, are offered at the Padmanabhaswamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram on Thiruvonam; and the Vamana temple at Thrikkakara near Kochi, held in tradition to stand on the site of Mahabali's capital, keeps its own ten-day festival. Beyond the state, Malayali associations from the Gulf to North America stage Onasadya feasts and cultural evenings, often on the nearest weekend.

Meaning

Onam celebrates homecoming, equality and gratitude for the harvest. The memory of King Mahabali's just reign gives the festival an ideal to aspire to — a time of prosperity shared by all — and the emphasis on welcoming everyone reflects a spirit of unity that crosses community lines. Above all it is a festival of togetherness and abundance. Families return home, elaborate feasts are shared on banana leaves, and the flowers, boats and games express a heartfelt joy in Kerala's culture and the generosity of the land.