I think most of you would be familiar with the Thanksgiving festival celebrated in the US which is a harvest festival . Today I am going to tell you about a little known harvest festival from my home state in India namely Kerala – called Onam…
Legend goes that Kerala prospered during the reign of King Mahabali and everyone in his kingdom was happy and prosperous. There was only one problem - the Gods became jealous that the people liked King Mahabali so much and decided to teach him a lesson. They sent down one of the Gods – Vishnu disguised as a monk. When the monk was admitted to the king’s audience, the king told him that he would grant whatever the monk desired.
The monk told King Mahabali that he did not wish for anything much - just enough land that he could measure with three of his footsteps. The king readily agreed to the monk’s request. On hearing this, the monk who was actually Vishnu in disguise grew larger and larger in size. With his first footstep he covered the earth; with his second footstep he covered the sky. Since he still had to take his third footstep, the king offered his head and Vishnu placed his third footstep on the king’s head and pushed him into the underworld.
Since the king was so loved by the people in his kingdom, the Gods allow him to visit his people once a year for 10 days. And so the people of Kerala celebrate the festival of Onam, just after the harvest to welcome King Mahabali ‘s time on Earth which usually falls between the months of August and September.
Some of the following customs and traditions are observed during the 10 days of Onam celebration. The ladies of the house make elaborate decorations in front of the main entrance of the house using different kind of flowers called pookalam.
During the festival days young girls and women perform a traditional dance called Kaikotti kali dressed in a special costume.
Snakeboat races are held in various locations called Vallamkali.
We often have all night kacheris – traditional Kathakali dancers in elaborate makeup and costumes reenacting the story of Onam through story and dance.
Growing up as a child my favourite memories of Onam was the beautiful meal that my mum made – it had to have three main ingredients: papadam – traditional Indian flatbread or cracker made from lentil flour and spices, pazham –the small sweet bananas (sometimes referred to as honey bananas) and payasam – a sweet dish made from rice, broken wheat or lentil boiled in milk with sugar. All the items in a traditional Onam meal is vegetarian and most exciting of all the entire meal is served on a banana leaf.
The Onam sadhya (meal) can have up to 24 dishes. My favourites of course are
Erissery – made from yellow pumpkins and red karamani beans
Injipuli – made from grated ginger, red chillies, tamarind and jiggery
Aviyal – mixed vegetables cooked in a coconut yoghurt sauce
Kaalan – green plaintains cooked in a coconut yoghurt sauce
Thorans - vegetables in grated coconut – a dry preparation
Mezhukupezhati – vegetables steamed and stir fried in oil with mustard seeds, chilli etc., again a dry preparation.
My mouth waters just thinking of the various goodies of the Onam meal and this is one of the traditions that I have tried to observe for my family and friends over the 21 years that I have lived outside of India…
