Festivals in India are always marked by music, joy and great food, and if you multiply that by ten, you have something close to the carnival of celebration that is Onam. Dedicated to the start of the harvest and the return of legendary King Mahabali to his beloved state, Onam is celebrated by every home in Kerala with a fervour that’s hard to match. Every aspect is laden with meaning, from the intricate pookalam arrangements which brighten homes with their flower petal patterns to the grand feast of the sadhya on Thiruvonam, the last day of the festival, people wait all year for their chance to celebrate.
The Onasadhya is at the core of every Malayalis celebration, a spread of 26+ dishes served on a banana or plantain leaf and always eaten with your hands, while sitting on the floor to signify a connection with the earth. People plan for days and usually even months beforehand to have all the necessities. The pappadam, parippu, upperi, sambar, rasam, avial, inji curry, kaalan, thoran, pachadi, olan, and of course different varieties of payasam all come together to make an unforgettable feast.
A New Way To Onam
For those outside India, living in countries away from the palpable atmosphere that floods Kerala every year, Onam can look and feel a little different. And sometimes, it isn’t even on the same day at all. “The timing of the celebration is tricky as we don’t have the day off,” says Dr Gautham Balachandran - a Consultant in Emergency Medicine and Paediatric Retrieval Medicine - who now lives in Glasgow, UK. “It’s not like Kerala where everyone has Thiruvonam as a public holiday.”
However, closer to home, Maya Kartha, a Content Head for a Radio Station finds that celebrating Onam in Dubai is like a home away from home. “Dubai is like an extension of Kerala, there’s such a huge Malayali population here and you get more or less everything for Onam, so I don’t technically miss anything apart from my family,” she says.
Treasured Memories
For most Onam is a time for family and laughter, usually in the family home, which for most is an experience that’s nearly impossible to replicate. “Back in India all our family members regardless of where they were settled will make sure to be at my Grandparent’s home.” says Priyathama Giritash who now works in Dubai as an IT Consultant, “This tradition has been lost after moving outside India and I really miss this get-together.”
“My favourite memory was us kids helping mom prep everything for making the Onam sadhya. It started at least 2 days before And the final counting of the dishes before we eat. Some of the dishes you make for Onam is only made using that festival lunch” says Toronto-based Joel Abraham, “So there is that excitement to eat that again.” “Gautham too misses the energy of his large family back in Kerala, “The extended family would come together in our “tharavadu veedu” and have 4 generations under one roof. The celebrations escalate to another level with laughter and the perfect kind of chaos!”
For Anisha, a Communications Specialist in Canada, it was the small gestures that ended up meaning the most. “I’ve always had a major sweet tooth, which is why desserts are my favourite part of any meal.” shes says, “Things weren’t different when it came to the traditional sadhya either; I would refuse second helpings of the rice and savoury dishes if it meant I could get to the payasam faster! I’m not sure when I first did this, but one time, when we all sat down for lunch at an Onam celebration, I swiped the sweet chips from my mom’s leaf and ater, it became a habit; to the point that any time we had sadhya, she would automatically place her share of the chips on my leaf. I didn’t think much of it back then, but I noticed that even recently when I went back home and attended a wedding with her, the first thing she did when we sat down for lunch was give me her banana chips. It warms my heart to think that as much as I’ve outgrown this silly habit and have come to enjoy the sadya in its entirety as a grown woman, my mom still saw me as the kid who needed a ‘little something sweet’ to enjoy her meal
Fuelling The Feast
It’s impossible to separate the idea of Onam from the Sadhya, and for most, it’s the highlight of the week. In India, preparing for the sadhya takes days of preparation with all members of the family pitching in to create the final meal. For Maya, getting food for the day has never been much of an issue, “Food-wise, we have the whole of Kerala in Dubai – north, south, east and west. Sometimes things that you won’t get in Kerala due to the high demand, you’ll find in Dubai! But one thing I do miss is the Boli (a rice flour and channa dal pancake flavoured with turmeric and cardamom) that we used to get in Trivandrum.”
For Joel, having all the family under one roof was integral to the festival and now his Onam sadhya looks and feels a lot different, “Onam is a complete family celebration. All the kids will be playing and all the men will be running the errands and drinking of course (Mallu requirements) and the women would be in the kitchen talking and cooking,” he says, “Here the maximum that happens is one family makes the Onam or some people come with the cooked food like a pot luck and that’s all.”
Redefining Onam
Many Malayalis have found ways to make Onam special no matter where they are, but there have been unavoidable changes to face and each generation is experiencing the festival slightly differently. For Joseph Menon, a student whose family has lived in Liverpool for over fourty years, Onam feels more like one day than a ten-day-long celebration. “It’s sort of like Christmas I guess,” he laughs, “all our family nearby come over, we eat, we talk and then everyone goes home.”
It’s not just the food that’s changed, but also the smaller rituals that mark the day as special, but that hasn’t slowed Gautham down, “None of the traditions are omitted…just adapted to life in the Western world.” he says, “Lack of availability of an abundance and variety of traditional flowers for athapoo makes our one at home (Amritanilayam) in Scotland smaller but I usually let my creativity compensate for it!”
Anisha feels like the pandemic has also taken a toll on those who celebrated abroad and being isolated from any friends or community for two years of festivities made the whole affair more sedate. “They’ve also adapted to the new ways of the world; so while participating in an Onam quiz over WhatsApp isn’t exactly traditional, it’s great to see folks doing the best they can to keep the spirit of Onam alive.”
No matter where in the world people find themselves celebrating Onam this year, whether with family or without, it’s clear that the spark of the festival is still burning bright in these pockets of the Malayali community around the globe. For the diaspora, Onam marks a change to bring a part of their heritage to their new homes and show off the beauty, diversity and traditions of God’s own country.