Onam, the colourful festival of Kerala

Onam is a kind of national festival of Kerala, celebrated irrelevant of the caste, creed or religion. The Keralites wait fervently for their King Mahabali to come and visit them during this period of ten days, in the month of "Chingam" as it is called in malayalam. King Mahabali was the legendary King of Kerala, who gave his people the best of everything . It was the Golden age for them. Even when he was such a good King to his people and the Kingdom, his ego was said to be very bad.

Lord Vishnu wanted to clear his devotee of the sin of egoistic behaviour, came as a small sized brahmin boy Vamana. He asked the king to give him a little space but the King said that he can take as much land as he wants. For that the Lord answered that he needed only 3 steps of earth for himself.

Against the wishes of his Guru, who saw something fishy in this, the King accepted the request and granted Vamana what he wanted. Suddenly the Boy took on a massive size, put one foot on to cover the sky, one to cover the earth and asked the bewidered king where he could put his foot to take the third step. King recognised who this boy was, stooped and bent his head and asked the God to place his foot there. God did as he was told and the King was sent to the netherworld.

Just before putting his foot down, God asked the King what his last wish was. The King just said that he wanted to visit his subjects once every year and would like see them happy and enjoying. This Onam festival is celebrated for this and the Malayalees believe that their King will come to visit them at this time.

So they wear good, new clothes, decorate their houses, have full lunch prepared with Sadya recipes, like Kalan, Olan, Aviyal, Sambar, Inji puli, etc. and partake with family and friends etc. There is a proverb in Malayalam, even if one has to sell his land, Onam festival should be celebrated.

Recipes for the Sadya:

You can find the recipes for the Onam Sadya