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.

The 'Thrissur Pooram' this May.

The ‘Pooram Nakshatram’ day in ‘Medam’ – Malayalam month, which coincides with months of April and May, is the most auspicious day and the most awaited day in Thrissur (also known as Trichur) as Thrissur witnesses the biggest Hindu festival of Kerala which lasts for almost 48 hours nonstop – the event commencing at 7am on the 1st day.

The whole city of Thrissur is decorated with flowers and blinking serial lights from the day before the ‘Thrissur Pooram’ and everyone seems to be gearing up for the festival as they are involved directly or indirectly in the celebrations. The ‘Thrissur Pooram Paraphernalia’ comprising the gold ornaments of the Elephants is displayed for public CMS School Compound. This is the closest you get to these ornaments to appreciate them as it is hardly possible on the Pooram day.

Temples in Thrissur are to be specially visited on these 2 days of the festivals as they are decked up like never before. They make an amazing sight.

But the highpoints of the ‘Thrissur Pooram’ – who are called the show-stoppers who steal the limelight and for whom the whole city of Thrissur along with people from other parts of Kerala and India as well as some foreigners and of course countless media persons assemble along their walkway are the regal Elephants! About 100 Elephants are decked up in gold ornaments and paraded through the city of Thrissur royally to the incessant and rhythmic drumming and fireworks. Countless percussion instruments follow the Elephants throughout the parade. 300 music performers perform the ‘Melam’ for 2 continuous hours during the day which will just transport you to a different world.

This Elephant parade is like no other in the whole world and this is the closest you could get to so many Elephants all at once. The mere sight of them bunched together – posing for a million clicking cameras from all directions will give you goosebumps as you get all stirred up emotionally.

On Thrissur Pooram, Thrissur city does not sleep. All Elephants are made to walk a set route in the city which ends up at the Vadakkunnathan Temple – an ancient temple dedicated to Lord Shiva.

Thrissur Pooram festival has been celebrated since 1798 and was started by Raja Rama Varma – also known as Sakthan Thampuran – the ruler of Cochin. With the launch of the Thrissur Pooram festival and a host of other Hindu festivals here, Thrissur became the culture-capital of Kerala. It was Maharaja Sakthan Thampuran who unified a dozen temples which were situated around the Vadakkunnathan Temple and organized a joint celebration of all these temples which became a mass festival and involved the whole city and ten other towns.

On the night of the first day of the Thrissur Pooram, the city of Thrissur dazzles with millions of multi-coloured lights which run over all the streets of the city and the skyscape will have no space to breathe with scores of fireworks lighting up the skies. No wonder then that of all the festivals in south India, Thrissur Pooram is known to be the most thunderous and the most spectacular festival ever with several lakhs attending.