Keralites celebrate Onam with a blend of tradition, modernity

Keralites celebrate Onam with traditional customs, games, and feasts, spreading joy and cultural identity worldwide.

On Sunday (September 15, 2024), Keralites gathered at homes to celebrate Onam, a largely secular festival reminiscent of a utopian pastoral past, with gifts, group games, new clothes, floral decorations, fireworks, house visits and a lavish traditional spread served on emerald green banana leaves. 

The palpable festival cheer and bonhomie also spilt onto the street from homes. Clubs and resident associations set up swings, revived conventional games and organised feats of strength competitions, including arm wrestling, pole climbing, and log pillow fights. 

Onam also saw a revival of harvest season games played on fallow fields in the past, including Ola Panthu, Kuttiyum Kolum and Uri Adi.

In Thiruvananthapuram, the historic Kanakakunnu Palace and its sprawling, leafy grounds emerged as the epicentre of flashy and modern Onam celebrations, marked by music concerts, dances, light and sound shows and folk art performances. The nearby Manaveeyam Veedhi provided a stage for young artists to showcase their talent.

The festival seemed to erase, at least temporarily, the blues of the Wayanad landslide disaster that shocked Kerala in July. The State Government had cancelled official celebrations in mourning for the lost lives. However, it allowed businesses and media houses, including TV channels, to organise events.

Onam, founded on the fable of the return of a beloved fairy tale king banished by jealous Gods to the netherworld, has evolved over the years into a secular national festival and cultural holiday for Keralites.

The festival has also helped the sizeable Malayalee diaspora establish their cultural identity in foreign lands. Conventional and social media were replete with Onam celebrations of settler Malayalees in the Gulf, the U.S., England and Europe.