Onam - best time to visit Kerala!

Kerala’s biggest festival – Onam brings 10 solid days of carnivals and celebrations this august. The water channels of Kerala come alive with high-spirited boat races and the main lands with royal marches of caparisoned elephants, music, dance, elaborate ‘onasadya’ meals brightly decorated temples and streets with serial-lights and flowers.

Onam is an ancient harvest festival which also celebrates the monsoons as well as the annual visit of Asura King Mahabali – during whose reign it is said that Kerala flourished. Onam is celebrated during the Malayalam month of Chingam (August-Septermber) and lasts 10 days.

‘Vallamkali’ or the snake-boat-race is the high-point of Onam where the main boat races are held in a 40-kms stretch on River Pamba – the third longest river of Kerala. Lengthy snake-boats (chundans) which hold fifty oarsmen each participate in ferocious races on all 10 days. These oarsmen not only paddle swiftly in perfect coordination, they also sing in perfect rhythm while they race to win. Each of these race-boats has 150 people aboard of which 125 are oarsmen; 4 are helmsmen and 25 are singers. Vallamkali epitomizes perfect team play and all it takes is one mistake of one oarsman to overturn the boat.

This is also what brings thousands of non-resident Keralites and other tourists to Kerala each year. You will find countless photographers and media perched on the banks of river Pamba struggling to get a clear shot of the racing snake-boats – standing amidst thousands of onlookers who themselves behave boisterously –cheering for the boats.

The rich Kerala cuisine cooked during the Onam days – the ‘Onasadya’ - comprises a lavish 9-course meal of 13 primary dishes - a veritable rainbow of colourful vegetables cooked in fresh and flavourful locally grown ingredients and served in fresh banana leaves. Onasadya is not only a convergence of culinary and cultural influences of centuries; it is also one of the most colourful and attractive displays of food in the world.

‘Onakalikal’ are games played on Onam with great fervor. This is one of the rare occasions where you would get to witness the martial arts of archery (ambeyyal); combat games (kayyankali); kabaddi (kutukutu); mask dances (kummattikali); dancing in tiger-like body-paints (pulikali); folk dances of women (thumbithullal & kayikottikali); and rugged ball games (talappanthukali) among other festivities.

‘Pookalam’ or traditional flower arrangements made on each morning in front of each house during the Onam days is another colourful representation of festivities in Kerala. Comprising 6-10 varieties of flower petals, the pookalam activity is a joyous event among the Kerala women folk all over the state. You would get to see some of the most creative and arty patterns and designs of flowers during Onam.

The dazzling parade of caparisoned elephants amidst incessant fireworks, music and drum roll all day is worth all the struggle of earning one spot among the thousands in the crowd alongside the parade route. More than 100 elephants parade the main streets of all the major towns of Kerala.

 

The Onam week has also been declared as the Tourism Week by the Kerala government so that other people can visit and enjoy the true essence of Kerala at the right time. And certainly, Onam is the best time of the year to visit Kerala!

Pix courtesy: Indianexpress, timesofindia, keralapix, loadtr, yahoogroups, fanimages, prinjuprasad.blogspot.

March Elephants....March.

Temple Festivals of Kerala epitomize royalty, grandeur and carnivals of India. And one of them is the Guruvayur Utsavam (festival) celebrated at the Guruvayur Sri Krishna Temple in Guruvayur – known as the ‘Dwaraka of the South’- in Kerala starting from 5^th of March.

This March, the little town of Guruvayur will bustle with activity as it celebrates the Guruvayur Festivals – Patahadi, Dhwajadi and Ankuradi that last all month. The Temple would be richly decorated by fresh-cut flowers during day and with multi-coloured blinking lights – thousands in a row at night and the streets would be lined with flower and light decorations with spiritual music in Malayalam playing at every nook and corner. Fireworks, decorative arch-ways, bunches of coconuts and plantain trunks which are planted by most doorways is what Guruvayur experiences every March.

Remembered for the elaborate ‘pujas’ in the Guruvayur Sri Krishna Temple and the majestic Elephant parades in which Elephants adorned with ornate golden caparisons (nettipattam) parade along with hundreds of Lord Krishna devotees and the temple priests doing the drum-roll in the festival procession around the temples, the Guruvayur Festivals in March are dedicated to Lord Krishna and are much-awaited by the locals and tourists. During this month the Temple hosts several cultural programs daily. It is a feast to the eyes and the experience takes you to a whole new level of spirituality even if you’re not a Hindu.

Known to have more than 60 captive Elephants which are an integral part of the Temple Pujas & Processions, the Guruvayur Sri Krishna Temple Board has constructed an exclusive, one-of-its-kind Elephant Palace to house these regal beings of which Gajarajan Guruvayur Kesavan is the most popular and celebrated elephant for his devout behaviour. Beside pilgrimage people from all over the country visit Guruvayur Temple during this festival because of the unique Elephant Race (Aanayottam) which marks the commencement of the festival where all the elephants along with their respective mahouts race against one another on the streets of Guruvayur.

Besides partaking in the celebration of the Guruvayur Festival, rheumatic patients also pay homage to the temple’s residing deity – Lord Krishna as it is a strong belief that doing so would relieve them of their suffering and ailments.