What is Onam?
Onam is the Hindu festival which is celebrated by the people of Kerala in India. This festival is celebrated for the legendary emperor Mahabali along with Vamana, the avatar of Vishnu. It is usually celebrated in the month of August and September for ten days. This festival is also known as harvest festival which will give more joy and fun to the people of Kerala where they are all busy in celebrating this festival for all ten days. According to Malayam calendar this festival is used to celebrate in the month of Chingam.
History and Celebration of Onam festival
History of Onam
Its history involves 2 main reasons. One reason is that on this great day, King Mahabali who very strong and has won the earth in battles by many god and become the master for whole earth. He was also known as perfect king and his period is also called golden Era. Lord Vishnu was then sent to Mahabali in the form of Brahmin. Mahabali was impressed by the Vishnu and asked him to visit the earth every year so people used to celebrate Onam every year to welcome Mahabali.
The another legend related to Onam festival is that it is also considered as Harvest festival where during these season farmers harvest more crops to produce more foods for the state richness.
How Onam is celebrated?
Onam festival is celebrated by customs and rituals where people used to wake up early in the morning and engaged themselves in the prayers in their homes along with dealing in preparing many dishes. On this great festival they used to prepare pookalam which is designed with different colors and shapes outside as well as inside their houses along with preparation of onasadhya which is considered the vegetarian dish. People used to celebrate this festival with full enjoyment where they are engaged themselves in their famous dance pulikkali.
Men also engaged themselves in Tug war, kabadi and Onathallu. The most attractive part of this festival is snake boat race where they used to gift Nehru trophy to the winning team.