38 Fun Facts About Onam

Which extreme does the proverb 'Kaanam Vittum Onam Unnanam' say a Malayali should go to for the Onam lunch?

Sell one's property if need be, says the old adage, rather than miss the Onam sadya; yet a feast once cooked at home now often comes from hotels and caterers.

Once Vamana's cosmic form had covered everything he ruled, what did King Mahabali offer to keep his promise?

His head was all Mahabali still had to give, and Vamana pushed him into the netherworld, yet the king was allowed to visit his people once a year.

In the legend behind Onam, what does Vamana, the dwarf who tricked King Mahabali, carry?

An umbrella, given at his thread ceremony, marks Vamana as a young Brahmin student, and in that humble guise he went to Mahabali to ask for a small gift of land.

Which animal do Pulikali's painted, belly-shaking dancers imitate on Thrissur's streets during Onam?

Tiger hunts are acted out in the procession, with some performers cast as hunters, while the painted tigers dance to chenda drums.

Why did Kerala's government cancel its official Onam celebrations in 2018?

Severe floods, the state's worst in nearly a century, hit that August, so the money set aside for the Onam festivities went to relief work.

What is a pookalam, the circular decoration Kerala homes start on Atham and enlarge every day until Thiruvonam?

A flower carpet was once built only from local blooms, but today's pookalams rely on flowers trucked in from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

What shape is the Thrikkakarappan, the clay figure many Kerala households set out at Onam?

A pyramid of clay with a flat top, the Thrikkakarappan is set out at Onam, though some say it stands for Mahabali and others for Vamana, the god who sent him away.

Which famous boy devotee of Vishnu, protected from his own murderous father, was the grandfather of King Mahabali?

Prahlada was saved by Vishnu's man-lion avatar, Narasimha, yet in the usual list the very next avatar, Vamana, took his grandson Mahabali's kingdom.

Which sage, in one telling, blocked the water from Mahabali's pot to stop the land gift and lost an eye?

In Puranic tellings a jab from Vamana cost Shukra the eye, and a later penance won his sight back.

What does Trivikrama, the name Vamana takes when he swells to cosmic size before Mahabali, literally mean?

Three steps is the literal sense of Trivikrama, and Rigveda hymns were already praising Vishnu's three strides long before the dwarf story took shape.

Which group in Hindu tradition counts Mahabali among its members?

The Chiranjivi include Mahabali, and in some tellings the same Vishnu who took his kingdom then agreed to stay by his side in the netherworld.

Which god's office is Mahabali promised to inherit in a future age, consolation after Vamana took his three worlds?

Indra, king of heaven, is the role Mahabali will one day assume, a neat reversal of the war in which Bali had driven that same king out of Svarga to begin with.

Outside Kerala, King Mahabali's yearly return to earth is celebrated on a day of which festival?

Diwali's Balipratipada welcomes Bali back to earth, a yearly visit that Vishnu granted, the tellings say, because the king's devotion pleased him.

What does the name of Thrikkakara, the Kochi temple town where Onam begins, mean?

Place of the holy foot recalls where Vamana is said to have set his foot on Mahabali.

Which former capital of the Kingdom of Cochin hosts Athachamayam, the royal-style parade that opens Onam on Atham?

Tripunithura's parade once saw the Kochi Maharaja march to the Thrikkakara temple; today elephants, floats and musicians fill it.

What sets apart Onapottan, the crowned, bell-ringing Mahabali figure who calls at North Malabar homes during Onam?

He never speaks, hence the name, pottan being Malayalam for a deaf-mute; his bell announces him as he blesses homes on Uthradam and Thiruvonam, a role some villages reserve for the Malaya community.

What are the skirts and shaggy bodysuits of Kummattikali, the masked house-to-house Onam dance of Thrissur, made of?

Plaited grass makes the costume, and at each house the masked dancers are thanked with rice or small sums of money.

In Thumbi Thullal, an Onam game where women sing around a girl holding thumba leaves, what does she sway like?

A dragonfly, thumbi in Malayalam, is what the girl imitates as the clapping and songs speed up; once a village pastime, the game now survives only as part of Onam.

What do women circle, clapping, in Thiruvathirakali, the Kerala group dance performed at Onam and Thiruvathira?

A lit oil lamp, the nilavilakku, stands at the centre, and at Thiruvathira the dance marks the day Parvati is said to have united with Shiva.

At which Thiruvananthapuram temple are painted ceremonial bows called Onavillu offered on Thiruvonam day?

Padmanabhaswamy receives bows painted with Vishnu's avatars because, in legend, Mahabali asked to see them and Vishnu let him see them as paintings.

What is the kasavu that gives the festive Onam sari worn by Malayali women its everyday name?

A golden zari border, the kasavu, frames the off-white weave, and that gold border helps set what a kasavu garment costs.

What is the neriyathu in the mundum neriyathum, the two-piece cream attire Kerala women wear at Onam?

The upper drape, the neriyathu, pairs with the mundu at the waist, and the one-piece Kerala sari was later patterned on this two-piece set.

Which town near Thiruvananthapuram, where Travancore's rulers settled Tamil weaving families, weaves Onam's kasavu?

Balaramapuram's weavers were brought there to make fine cloth for Travancore's royal family, and the maharaja gave them streets of their own.

What is traditionally chewed after an Onasadya to round off the meal, once the banana leaf has been folded?

Betel and areca nut close the feast, and the way a diner folds the leaf is said to tell the hosts how the meal went, though which way means what varies across Kerala.

Which Pandava, posing as the cook Ballava in King Virata's kitchen, is credited with inventing the sadya dish avial?

Bhima, the legends say, mixed whatever vegetables were at hand into one dish with coconut, and the mix became avial.

Which vegetable, cooked with red cowpeas, goes into the erissery on an Onasadya leaf?

Pumpkin and red cowpeas get their finish from coconut browned slowly in a pan, and a second erissery swaps in yam and raw banana.

Which light Onasadya dish simmers ash gourd and cowpeas in coconut milk?

Olan skips a fried tempering: a splash of raw coconut oil and curry leaves goes in only once the pot is off the fire.

What coats the sweet fried plantain chips served beside plain upperi on an Onasadya leaf?

Jaggery coats sharkara varatti, served early with the chips and pickles, before any curry reaches the leaf.

Which deity receives the first leaf of an Onasadya, before any guest is served?

Ganapati, whom Hindus invoke at the start of any new undertaking to clear its obstacles, is served that first full meal before anyone eats.

Which prime minister, thrilled by a Kerala snake boat race, jumped aboard the winning boat and later sent a silver trophy?

Jawaharlal Nehru rode the winning Nadubhagam Chundan to Alappuzha, and the silver trophy he sent became the prize of what is now the Nehru Trophy race.

What is rubbed into a chundan vallam's hull each season to keep the wood strong and slick?

Fish oil, carbon and eggs, mixed with coconut shell, are rubbed in because the village treats its boat as a divine vessel and tends it with care.

Which cricket legend inaugurated the 2019 Champions Boat League, Kerala's IPL-style season of twelve boat races?

Sachin Tendulkar opened a season that ran from the Alappuzha trophy race in August to the President's Trophy in November and drew about 1.8 crore television viewers; a 2018 launch had been postponed by the floods.

Which Maharaja of Cochin is said to have introduced Pulikali, Thrissur's painted Onam street dance, 200 years ago?

Sakthan Thampuran's men reportedly performed in animal paint with peculiar moves, a show called Pulikkettikali that locals loved; today the troupes converge on Swaraj Round, and women joined for the first time in 2016.

Which Thiruvananthapuram landmark's grounds are the main venue of the Kerala government's week-long Onam celebrations?

Kanakakunnu Palace hosts the Onam week that Kerala's Tourism Department stages to show visitors, foreign tourists included, the state's art forms.

Which day of Onam is known as First Onam?

Uthradam is when families clean their homes and buy fresh vegetables for the grand feast on Thiruvonam.

How many days, from Atham through Thiruvonam, does Onam run in Chingam, the opening month of the Malayalam year?

Ten days make up Onam, ending on Thiruvonam, the day Mahabali is said to come back from the netherworld to visit his people.

Which Sanskrit nakshatra, the 22nd lunar mansion, is called Thiruvonam in Malayalam and fixes Onam's final day?

Shravana falls within Makara, the sidereal sign of Capricorn, and Onam's date is fixed by the Panchangam on the day that star rules in Chingam, which is why it drifts between August and September.

The Malayalam calendar that places Onam in Chingam is named after which port city?

Kollam gave Kollavarsham its name because the era counts from an event there in 825 CE, though accounts differ on whether it was a founding, a convention or a royal decree.