The beginning of ‘Chingam’ month is celebrated as the harvest festival, popularly known as ‘Onam’, by the Keralites. This year, though ‘Thiru Onam’ festival falls on September 7, it was celebrated a little ahead in the city. At Kerala Kala Samithi, the soothing regional music reverberated around the venue as the community celebrated the festival on Sunday.
While women turned up in their best donning gold ornaments, men participated in various activities, wearing traditional attire. Some of the women and children were seen dancing away to glory to some of the folk, classical and semi-classical tunes.
Amidst the dance performances, one of the participants dressed as the mighty king ‘Mahabali’ was ushered in by a group of women, carrying trays of fresh flowers and coconut lamps. The devout believed that during Onam the king descends from heaven to earth to bless his people. Thus, the annual feature includes decorating the place with ‘Pookkalam’ (rangoli made of flowers) and other rituals to impress the large-hearted king.
Akshaya award For the samithi members it was all the more special as this year ‘Akshaya Puraskara Nidhi’ from Kerala presented them ‘Akshaya award’ for their exemplary works in the field of art and literature. Another ‘Akshaya award’ was given away to noted writer and translator L.R. Swamy for his literary works in Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam. As part of the event, scholarships were presented to some of the students. Later, representative of Akshaya Puraskara Nidhi from Kerala Paipra Radha Krishnan and Malayalam writer Nalini Bakel along with samithi members -- president of KKS N.M. Pillai, secretary P.M.S. Pillai and treasurer Pradeep -- released a tri-monthly magazine of KKS.
In line with the celebrations, assorted regional delicacies were served as part of ‘Onam sadhya’ (feast). The traditional spread includes ‘olan’, ‘mango pachidi’, ‘avial’, ‘kalan’ and ‘erissery’ along with ‘palada-pradhaman’, coated with liberal portions of grated coconut and condensed coconut milk.
