Skip to main content

Happy Onam




There has been no human society which did not have some myths and rituals.  Myths and rituals are a kind of psychological defence mechanisms.  Onam, Kerala’s most celebrated festival, revolves round the myth of a primitive king, Mahabali (more affectionately called ‘Maveli’), during whose reign there was no evil in the kingdom.  A kingdom without evil is a fascinating myth.  The associated rituals are meant to bring people closer to one another and to the environment.  Onam stresses on social functions and art performances as well as floral decorations. 

But the traditional ways of celebrating the festival have been replaced with modern ways dominated by new rituals.  The high priests of the new rituals are traders of different shades, ranging from the unavoidable supermarket to the redundant jeweller, from the film industry to the television channels. 

Onam is no more about equality and fraternity, goodness and generosity.  It is about shopping and entertainment. 

While there is nothing wrong about shopping or entertainment, there is much harm in redefining certain rituals.  The original rituals of Onam reinforced relationships among people as well as between people and nature.  Children went around gathering flowers from wherever flowers could be plucked.  In the process they merged into the nature.  They also met and spoke to the owners of the lands from where they collected the flowers.  The adults came together to participate in or to be spectators of the various events and performances related to the festival.  Flowers are now bought from the market and that too not for making the traditional floral carpet for Maveli but for participating in a floral carpet competition with substantial prizes.  Entertainments are brought home by the TV channels; or at best the family makes it to the nearest mall where people ineluctably remain strangers.  

What remains is the nostalgia conjured up by the traditional songs and dances telecast on the channels.  The nostalgia gives us a longing for the good old days.  But we know they won’t return.  We don’t want them to return, really.  It is impossible to give up our gadgets and luxury.  It is impossible to be generous to the needy neighbour.  It is impossible to be good. 

So we shall be content with the old myth of Onam and its new rituals.  Happy Onam!


Comments

  1. Replies
    1. Thank you, Amit. I do celebrate it in a meaningful way.

      Delete
  2. Happy Onam! So true , The very meaning of festivals and rituals have changed. But I believe some changes in means of celebrating does no harm as long as the essence of festivals remains intact.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. But the essence is changing, friend. Of course, change is a natural law and I'm not questioning it. If only people could understand the deep meaning of the festivals they would be far more useful in living more happily and fully.

      Delete
  3. Though a rituals of festivals change, important is celebration :). Happy Onam.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Happy Onam. Yea..everything has changed, but still malayalees of all religions try to make something out of it. It is true that there is no joint family kind of atmosphere, but many families do get together, bring food items separately and make a potluck onam. even that is also happiness for them.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Happy Onam :)
    There's only that nostalgia left for me too!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nostalgia is important. It can keep you rooted. Happy Onam to you too.

      Delete
  6. Happy Onam to you… Thought provoking post!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Another admirable post... Happy Onam to you :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Happy Onam wishes to you and your family. Yes it irritates me too bollywood songs blaring during religious functions. We mostly do what is done in television now rather then what is traditionally done.The essence of rituals bore people these days and are being replaced by technology and its gimmicks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Nima. As we move ahead it is going to be worse, I guess.

      Delete
  9. Replies
    1. Wish you too a very happy Onam, Remya. I'm sure the celebrations are still on in Kerala.

      Delete
  10. Happy Onam Tomichan! Agree Onam is nothing like what it was. I celebrated my first Kerala Onam about 16 years ago. It was the most boring and lonely one. Compared to that, the Onam's celebrated in Mumbai has always been more like what it should be. The whole family and extended families getting together to prepare the Onamsadya. Even this year, it was a family event. So, guess, the people in Kerala should work hard to preserve the tradition.

    ReplyDelete
  11. It's so nice to read post about the local festivals. My friend is a malayalee and she often tell me stories about how they celebrate Onam festival. My Onam wishes to all of you this coming holiday this year. Cheers to all!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl

Two Nuns and two questions

The nuns kept in custody  Two Catholic nuns were arrested on 25 July 2025 at Durg railway station for allegedly trafficking tribal women from Narayanpur in Chhattisgarh to Agra in UP. Today’s newspapers in Kerala have expressed their contempt of the act more vehemently than I had expected. It seems secularism has hope yet in this country. For those who are not aware of the incident, two nuns were arrested because some criminals of a depraved organisation called Bajrang Dal in Chhattisgarh chose to conclude that the nuns were committing the crime of human-trafficking. Since that charge wouldn’t stick, because the women confessed that they were going voluntarily to take up jobs with the help of the nuns in order to raise their families from miserable poverty in a country that claims to be a $5-tillion-economy, another charge was fabricated that the nuns had indulged in religious conversion. Now let us look at certain facts. Though I keep questioning the Christian churches for...

Missing Women of Dharmasthala

The entrance to the temple Dharmasthala:  The Shadows Behind the Sanctum Ananya Bhatt, a young medical student from Manipal, visited the Dharmasthala Temple and she never returned to her hostel. She vanished without a trace. That was in 2003. Her mother, Sujata Bhatt, a stenographer working with the CBI, rushed to the temple town in search of her daughter. Some residents told her that they had seen Ananya walking with the temple officials. The local police refused to help in any way. Soon Sujata was abducted by three men, assaulted, and rendered unconscious. She woke up months later in a hospital in Bangalore (Bengaluru). Now more than two decades later, she is back in the temple premises to find her daughter’s remains and perform her last rites. Because a former sanitation worker of the temple came to the local court a few days back with a human skeleton and the confession that he had buried countless schoolgirls in uniform and other young women in the temple premises. This ma...

The Chhattisgarh Story

Deforestation in Chhattisgarh Kerala’s Catholic Church is teeming with rage these days because of the arrest of two nuns in Chhattisgarh on false charges. No one seems to understand the real politics behind the Modi government’s enmity towards Christian missionaries in Chhattisgarh as well as other backward states in its neighbourhood. Modi is selling the tribal areas and forestlands to the corporate sector part by part, his friend Adani being the chief benefactor. The Christian missionaries are a severe hindrance in that commerce. Let us get some facts right, at least. The Adivasi villagers allege that Gram Sabhas (local governing bodies) were forged or manipulated under pressure from Adani and the BJP government officials in order to take away their lands. In Hasdeo Aranya, minutes of the local body meetings were altered to show the villagers’ consent for land transfers. Also, the Chhattisgarh Scheduled Tribes Commission found that Panchayat secretaries were detained and coerc...

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...