Last-minute shopping spree and cheery festivities mark Thiru Onam eve in Kerala

Holiday cheer marked the final day of the supersized Thiru Onam shopping season in Kerala as citizens crowded markets, malls, flower shops, electronic gadget stores and textile showrooms scouting for closing-hour bargain buys. Old traditions, uthrada pachil, made a comeback even as paddy farmers staged a protest outside the Kerala Secretariat over procurement dues.

Kerala erupted into a last-minute buying spree on Monday’s eve of Thiru Onam.

Holiday cheer marked the final day of the supersized Onam shopping season as citizens crowded markets, malls, flower shops, electronic gadget stores and textile showrooms scouting for closing-hour bargain buys.

Big brands and major retail chains used incessant television and social media advertising to transform Onam into a carnival of consumption. Onam greetings in the form of memes flooded social media sites.

The famed “Uthrada Pachil”, a flurry of pre-festival commercial activity, was perhaps most evident in the iconic Chalai market in Thiruvananthapuram.

The worries of inflation and scarcity took a back seat as Onam shoppers thronged the narrow shop-lined streets abuzz with street vendors hawking products ranging from flowers to vegetables and clothes and trinkets.

Upscale malls and retail stores turned their expansive premises into Onam wonderlands, complete with artists decked out as Mahabalis, the mythical king and festival’s mascot, and traditional art form performances, including Kathakali, Theyyam and Chanda Melam.

The palpable Onam cheer energised Thiruvananthapuram city, with residents and visitors turning the dazzlingly illuminated East Fort-Kawadiar stretch of the arterial M.G. Road into an eminently walkable festival stretch and an almost pedestrianised entertainment and shopping avenue. The capital also offered an abundance of stages for evening artistic performances.