Every year Malayalees all over the world celebrate Onam between the months of August and September. It is a festival, which has no boundaries of caste, creed or even religion. It is a harvest festival.
There is an interesting story behind this merry festival. The story goes that long ago Kerala was ruled by a wise, kind, just Asura king named Mahabali or Maveli. He was popular with the people but Indra, king of the gods, was afraid that Mahabali would attack his kingdom and rule over the Gods. Hence, Indra asked Lord Vishnu to destroy the king.
Lord Vishnu went to Mahabali’s court in the guise of a poor Brahmin named Vamana. Mahabali thought that he could give his people anything they asked for so he promised Vamana to give him whatever he wanted. Vamana said that he wanted as much land as three footsteps would cover and the king laughingly asked him to pick which piece of land he wanted. Suddenly Vamana became so big that in one step he covered the whole Earth and in the next step, the rest of the universe. When asked where to keep the third step Mahabali meekly bowed his head for Vamana to step on. Vamana granted Mahabali a boon before pushing him into Paatala (the Underworld). The boon was that every year Mahabali could visit his people once on Onam.
This year the women of ‘The Atrium’ a residential campus in Thiruvanmiyur celebrated Onam.
They began the celebrations with a ‘Pookolam’ competition. Pookolam is a design of flowers made on the floor.
The a few ladies presented songs in Malayalam. There was also the traditional ‘Kayy Kotti Kali’.This is a dance event by women. They move in a circle clapping hands with each other like in Kollatam.The program ended with a traditional Kerala lunch called ‘Sadhya’.