Onam

Onam is Kerala’s harvest festival and its most widely kept one, marked across religious communities. It commemorates the annual homecoming of the mythical king Mahabali, whose reign is remembered as a time when everyone was equal — the reason the festival is framed around hospitality and abundance rather than worship.

It runs for ten days, building to Thiruvonam. Households lay a pookalam, a circular carpet of flower petals at the entrance, adding a ring each day. The centrepiece is the Onam sadya: a vegetarian feast of twenty or more preparations served on a banana leaf in a fixed order, eaten with the hands, ending in payasam.

The public side includes Pulikali — performers painted as tigers, associated particularly with Thrissur — as well as Kathakali, folk dance and, on the backwaters, vallam kali snake-boat racing, with crews of a hundred or more rowing in unison.

Onam follows the Malayalam calendar, so the Gregorian dates shift each year, generally falling in August or September.