Onam 2023: When we moved back to Kerala, as a teenager I fell in love with the greenery of Kerala, the paddy fields and monsoon and my little village with the stream in our backyard and the cave temple sitting atop the hillock. Kerala for me was people who loved Nature, knew Nature, cared for it and celebrated it. Onam is our harvest festival and the first crop is harvested and enjoyed during this time. We made pookalams or rangoli with flowers hand-picked from our backyards and gardens which starts 9 days before the actual Onam. And Onam is celebrated on Thiruvonam nakshtram or Star in Chinga masam. So each day has a star- today is day 5 Anusham, previous days are Swati, Vishakam, Chitra, Hastham. We start the kolams on Hastham or Atham. On Thiruvonam, after bath and new clothes and a visit to the local temple, we have a special puja at home for Thrikakarai Appan, who is placed in the pookalam and worshipped. Thrikakrai Appan is a pyramid shaped structure without the pointed tip and made of wood and used every year. After this, we sit down together for a special feast - Onam Sadhya hand cooked by elders of the families with the freshest of these vegetables. We believe Mahabali visits us on this day and wants to see happy faces. So we don our best, eat well, get together and celebrate. In the evenings we have Puli Kali( a dance by men painted as tigers), Thiruvadara Kali and Kaykotti Kali by women.
I have tried pookalams this year trying to use as many things from my walks as possible.
Contribution by: Sita Narayanan
Resource: Sita Narayanan’s Instagram post