Like it did for many families living away for jobs. The Kadakavoor trips stopped when the children grew up and began celebrating the festival in Thiruvananthapuram where the parents worked. Once my uncle Abu put up a children’s play in a shed using my grandfather’s torch as a revolver and muthassan (grandfather) was very upset about his draining battery,” says Bindu, laughing. I remember watching one called 7 Rathrikal (seven nights). “The plays would begin at 10 or 11 in the night and go on till early morning. The '70s and '80sīack then, there would be all-night dramas that families went to watch, walking all the way, with no fear of vehicles on the road (‘because there were hardly any’).
In some places, the atham is removed on the tenth day after placing an ada (rice dough with sweet fillings) at the centre and shooting it down with a homemade bow and arrow.
Kummattikkali by Aruna, Wikimedia Commons The first day begins on ‘Atham’ day of the Malayalam month of Chingam. The second day, there will be another circle of flowers around it, the third day one more and so on for 10 days.
The athapoo begins as one little circle of flowers around ‘Thrikkakara Appan’ – a clay structure symbolosing Lord Vamana, who, in the myths, pushed down Mahabali to the netherworld. It follows a curious pattern, growing by one circle every day. The more-popular athapoo (or pookalam which is a circular floral design laid outside houses) continues to this day, one of the few rituals – apart from the Onam sadya (feast) – that did not get lost in time. Everywhere, women danced to Thiruvathira and children swung in the oonjal. Thumbi Thullal changed to Karadi Kali in Kollam, Kummati Kali and Puli Kali in Thrissur, Paana Paatu and Onathappan in Palakkad (which are described below). It would seem they stuck to the folklore that came with Mahabali – when the king had ruled, all people lived as one. In the evening, they’d all take baths and wear new clothes made of the same material for everyone in the house, including the members of the family and the domestic workers. There’d be all the cousins and aunts and uncles, about 20 people living in the house with a huge compound. The second Onam day, Thiruvonam, is the main one, when the mythical king of Kerala, Mahabali, is believed to visit and watch over the people of a land he had once ruled.īindu’s story begins in the 1960s and we shall go over the decades with her and others, on how the celebrations for Onam have changed but the festive spirit has persisted through all of it.īindu, a writer based in Thiruvananthapuram, was then a child visiting the mother’s village for Onam. That was the first Onam day – there are four, starting from Uthradom. By the time Bindu and her family reached their ancestral home in Kadakkavoor, a village north of Thiruvananthapuram, the swings would be ready, tightly tied between coconut trees.
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