Kerala festival Onam - Pookalam

Pookalam is an intricate and colorful arrangement of flowers laid on the floor. Tradition of decorating Pookalam is extremely popular in Kerala and is followed as a ritual in every household during ten-day-long Onam celebrations.
'Pookalam' consists of two words, 'poov' meaning flower and 'kalam' means color sketches on the ground. It is considered auspicious to prepare Pookalam, also known as 'Atha-Poo' during the festival of Onam.
People believe the spirit of their dear King Mahabali visits Kerala at the time of Onam. Besides making several other arrangements, people, especially adolescent girls prepare elaborate Pookalams to welcome their most loved King.
Making a Pookalam – Pookalammidal
Athapoovu are usually circular in shape and multi-tiered colourful arrangements of flowers, petals and leaves. Use of powder colours, desiccated coconut or artificial flowers is prohibited. Pookalams are normally laid on the front court yard of the house. Idols of Mahabali and Vishnu are placed in the center of the Pookalam and worshiped. Diameter of a Pookalam normally ranges from four to five meters.
Ritual of making the flower mats continues for all ten days of Onam. Designing starts from the day of Atham and is made ready by Thiruvonam day. Basic design is prepared on the first day. Size of a Pookalam is increased by adding more to it on every passing day hence a massive Pookalam gets ready for the main day of the occasion. It’s a big creative task, as designers have to think of a new design ever day.
Various flowers are used on each day as a specific flower is dedicated to each day of Onam. Commonly used flowers include Thumba (Lucas Aspera), Kakka Poovu, Thechipoovu, Mukkutti (little tree plant), Chemparathy (shoe flower), Aripoo or Konginipoo (Lantana), Hanuman Kireedom (Red pagoda plant) and Chethi (Ixora). Of all these flowers, Thumba flowers are given more importance in Pookalam as they are small in size and glitter in the the soft rays of the sun. 'Thumba Poo' is also considered to be the favourite flower of Lord Shiva and King Mahabali was a devout worshipper of Shiva.
On the next day of Onam, Thumba flowers are used to decorate Onapookalam. The arrangement is not touched for the next 15 days. On the 15 th day, called 'Ayilyam', Pookalam is decorated again. On the next day, called Magam, Pookalam is given a cut in its four corners with a knife. This marks the end of Pookalam decorations for the year. Some also follow the tradition of erecting a small pandal over the completed flower carpet and decorating it with colourful festoons.
Making of Pookalam is itself a colourful and joyous event. Being a team effort it helps to generate feeling of togetherness and goodwill amongst the people. It is animating to watch women as they prepare Pookalam while singing traditional songs. Giggling and sharing jokes between the thought provoking and back breaking job.

Onam Festival of Kerala

Onam is a festival celebrating in Kerala. As India is a true multicultural country with lot of cultures and languages, it is also having countless numbers of festivals. Some of these are popular, where as others are just limited to the local village and districts. People are considering Onam as state festival of Kerala, as all over Kerala people are celebrating it.

Onam Legend Mahabali

Onam legend evolved from the story of a demon king who ruled Kerala. This king Mahabali had ruled Kerala before Lord Krishna's Birth. Hindus consider Lord Krishna was born around 5000 years back. Therefore, the story might have happened before 5000 years.

Lord Vishnu in the form of Vamana (Vamana avatar is one of Dasavatharam) begged 3 feet of land form King Mahabali. Once Mahabali has granted his wish, Vamana has taken his Universal form and with his 2 footsteps he measured all the universe including earth, heaven and sky. Since there was no place left for 3rd footstep of Vamana, Mahabali shown his head to Vamana to keep third footstep, as to keep up the promise he has given to Vamana. With that footstep Vamana pressed Mahabali to the world under the earth known as pathalam (Hindu mythology). However before pressing, him in to the pathalam, Lord Vishnu granted a boon to Mahabali. With that boon Mahabali is allowed to visit Kerala, once in every year. To convince the visiting king Mahabali, that the country is still prosperous as it was under his rule, Kerala people started celebrating that day as onam with lot of food and dance.

When is Onam: 2009
Onam 2009 is on Wednesday second of September. The atham star that is 10 days behind of Onam is on 24th of August. From Atham onwards the Onam pookalam will start and ends on Onam day.

Onam pookalam:-

Onam pookalam is the art works done by flowers on Onam season, in front of houses in Kerala. Every day morning people clean the floor and put fresh flowers to make pookalam. Plenty of flower were available in olden days, as the month chingam (August) is Just after the monsoon and Kerala was an agricultural state. Special Kerala flowers like thumpapoo, kakkapoo were available plenty in olden days. However, nowadays these flowers are not available. So now the creation of pookalam is greatly depends on the imported flowers from neighboring state of Tamilnadu. The price of the flowers will go up on onam season. Malayalee associations will conduct onam pookalam competitions in Kerala and abroad. We can expect lot of onam competition for onam 2009.

Onam celebrations:

In Kerala, people celebrate onam in their house. However, in outside of Kerala normaly malayalee associations will conduct onam celebrations. All this function will have lot of cultural programs like bharatnatyam, mohiniyattam, and thiruvathira kali. In the Middle East countries like UAE, Kuwait and Oman, onam celebration will be in a bigger manner. Other countries like, Singapore, USA and Australia will have bigger celebrations. Known Film stars and famous writers will attend these functions as chief guests.

Onam dance:

Thiruvathira kali is one of the main dances for onam. Group of women with 8, 10, or 12 members performs it. They will be dressed in Kerala traditional dress and dance with rhythmic steps against thiruvathira songs. Thiruvathira songs will be usually Hindu devotional songs about Lord Krishna or other gods. We can expect lot of videos of thiruvathira kali on YouTube after Onam

Thrissur Pooram Temple Festival of Thrissur in Kerala aana chamayam

Thrissur Pooram Temple Festival of Thrissur in Kerala 2009 in pictures

Thrissur Pooram Temple Festival of Thrissur in Kerala

Thrissur Pooram is the annual temple festival of the town of Thrissur in Kerala, India. It is one of the most colourful temple festival of Kerala which attracts large masses of devotees and spectators from all parts of the State and even outside.
Thrissur Pooram is celebrated at the premises of the Vadakkunnathan Temple, situated on a hillock (Thekkinkadu maidan) right in the centre of the city, on the Pooram day in the month of Medom (April-May). Processions of richly caparisoned elephants accompanied by percussion ensembles from various neighbouring temples culminate at the Vadakumnathan temple. The most impressive processions are those Thriuvambadi Bhagavathy from the Thiruvambadi Sri Krishna Temple and the Paramekkavu Bhagavathi from Paramekkavu temple. The celebrations which last for over 36 hours includes parasol displays and firework shows.
This festival was introduced by Sakthan Thampuran, the Maharaja of the erstwhile Cochin State in the late eighteenth century. Perhaps, there is no other festival in Kerala that draws such an unbelievable number of people to a single event. However Vadakkunnathan is a mere spectator at this festival, lending its premises and grounds for the great event. The pooram festival is also well known for the magnificent display of fireworks. Fire works start in the early hours and the dazzling display last three to four hours.
The Pooram Festival is celebrated by two rival groups representing the two divisions of Thrissur Paramekkavu and Thiruvambadi vying with each other in making the display of fireworks grander and more colourful. Each group is allowed to display a maximum of fifteen elephants and all efforts are made by each party to secure the best elephants in South India and the most artistic parasols, several kinds of which are raised on the elephants during the display. Commencing in the early hours of the morning, the celebrations last till the break of dawn, the next day.
The procession but also quite enlivening. The marvellous as well as magical effect of the Panchavadyam, a combination of five percussion and wind instruments is to be felt and enjoyed. Among the varieties of festivals celebrated in Kerala, Thrissur Pooram is the most thunderous, spectacular and dazzling. There are three temples participating in the event. It is an expression of popular fascination for sound and colour, and because of the pageantry, it appeals to all people. The images of the deities from all temples of the village are taken on elephants to the main temple. The climax of the festival is the exhibition of thirty elephants and the famous fireworks at 2.30 am local time.

Arattupuzha Pooram at Thrissur Kerala

The Arattupuzha Pooram is described as `the greatest Devamela on earth’ and it is the oldest pooram festival in Kerala. The `ezhunnellippu' or procession of the `thidambu' or idol of the Arattupuzha Sastha include grandly caparisoned elephants and traditional percussionists
Arattupuzha Pooram, the largest elephant stage entry in which about 70 majestically caparisoned elephants participated. Arattupuzha is about 14 km from Thrissur town. The famous Ayyappa temple at Arattupuzha is just 14 kms from Thrissur, and celebrates its annual Pooram festival during March April.
Arattupuzha is a culturally significant village located in Thrissur district of of Kerala in southern India, and is home to the annual Arattupuzha Pooram that stages the grand spectacle of scores of caparisoned elephants lined up in a row to the accompaniment of ethnic percussion concerts
History
Located on the banks of the Karuvannur River, legend has it that Arattupuzha was the meeting place of all the Gods of the world until floods ravaged the area and forced some of participants to meet 14 kilometers north of the village -- in the city of Thrissur. The Arattupuzha Pooram is still quite popular, even though it is much less famous than the Trichur Pooram. The Arattupuzha Pooram is commonly referred to as the "grand-daddy of all Poorams." It takes place in front of the famous Sree Sastha Temple, a temple which is believed to be more than 3,000 years old.
On the sixth day of the seven day festival at Arattupuzha temple, 61 gaily caparisoned elephants gather in the temple grounds, accompanied by the temple music of Panchavadyam, nadaswaram, pacharimelam and pandimelam. This Year the festival is on 06 April 2009.