Onam (Thiruvonam)

About Onam (Thiruvonam)

Significance

Onam is the harvest festival and great homecoming of Kerala, celebrated in the Malayalam month of Chingam as the monsoon eases. Kerala tradition holds that it marks the yearly return of Mahabali (Maveli), the asura king under whose rule, the old songs say, all people lived as equals, without deceit or want.

The Bhagavata Purana (Canto 8, chapters 15 to 23) tells how Vishnu, as the dwarf Vamana, came to Bali’s sacrifice, asked for three paces of land, and with two strides covered earth and heaven; Bali offered his own head for the third and was sent to rule the netherworld of Sutala, blessed for his generosity. The same Purana places Vamana’s appearance on a Dwadashi under the Shravana nakshatra, which Malayalam calls Thiruvonam and which gives the festival its day. The Vamana temple at Thrikkakara near Kochi is traditionally regarded as the festival’s centre.

How and where it is observed

Onam is the state festival of Kerala, celebrated by Malayalis of every community and wherever they live. The festival runs for ten days from Atham to Thiruvonam; at Thripunithura the Athachamayam procession opens it, and the main days around Thiruvonam are public holidays in Kerala. Boat races on the rivers and backwaters, such as the Aranmula Uthrattathi Vallamkali, and the Pulikali tiger dance of Thrissur belong to the season.

Rituals

Each morning from Atham a flower carpet (pookkalam) is laid before the house, growing larger day by day. New clothes (onakkodi) are given to family members; Thiruvathira kali and Kaikottikali dances, the mock combat of Onathallu and games are performed, and swings are hung from trees. On Thiruvonam the Onasadya, a vegetarian feast of many dishes served on a banana leaf and closed with payasam, is shared, and in many homes clay figures of Vamana and Mahabali (Thrikkakkarappan) are set up and worshipped.

How the date is fixed

Onam is fixed by the solar month and the nakshatra, not by a tithi. It is the day of Thiruvonam (Shravana nakshatra) in Chingam, the Malayalam solar month that begins with the Sun’s entry into sidereal Simha (by Kerala’s rule, on the day of the ingress if it comes before three-fifths of the daytime, otherwise the next day). The nakshatra belongs to the day at whose sunrise it prevails for at least six nazhikas (2 hours 24 minutes), otherwise to the previous day. When Chingam holds two Thiruvonams, Onam is the second, whose Atham also falls in Chingam, as on 15 September 2024; Kerala almanacs can differ on the threshold in borderline years.

Sources

• Bhagavata Purana, Canto 8, chapter 18: the appearance of Vamana (Shravana Dwadashi)
• Kerala Tourism (Government of Kerala): Onam
• Encyclopaedia Britannica: Onam
• R. Sewell and S. B. Dikshit, The Indian Calendar (1896): the Malayalam solar month-start rule

Customs differ between regions, communities and families; this description is background, not a prescription. The date above is calculated by the rule shown on this page.