FESTIVALS IN KERALA Highlight : Most Spectacular Festivals Major Festivals : Onam Festival, Kerala Boat Race, Pongal Destinations : Kozhikode, Kannur, Kasargod, Malappuram, Ernakulam What To Do : See Rangoli (Floral Pattern), Taste 'Payasam'

Festive Celebrations In Kerala - A Colourful Side of Life

Elephant Festival, Thrissur - Kerala

Onam Arts And Crafts

Snake Boat Race Music And Dance

Elephant Festival

The most important difference between animals and humans is perhaps, the animals cannot celebrate their good spirits, except in pages of fairy tales. In humans too, we have some people amongst ourselves, who will prefer sitting in front of an idiot-box and increase the level of fatty acids in their body, rather than going out and run wild. However, there are some people still left in this world, who want to enjoy harder and it is only because of their thirst, that we come across so many colourful occasions in our life. Kerala is one such state and why not, afterall it is God's own country. Celebrated with overwhelming excitement and hilarity, Malayali festivals are like priceless gems, trimming the crown of Kerala with irrefutable charm of age-old tradition and culture. Round the year these moments of celebrations create a vibrant trove of merriment in Kerala and bring a revolution amidst the mundane affairs of life. Enjoy festival tours of Kerala to see the most popular festival of Kerala India.

Lose Yourself In The Whirlpool of Merriment

Every month turns up as a new face, every season winds up as a reason to celebrate in Kerala. Each of these carnivals are a true celebration of the bounties of nature and a way to show gratitude for all the things God has bestowed us with. Everything is same, be it a craze for new clothes, rituals or the joyous rhythm that makes everyone twist a step or two, but even then there is something, that individualizes each moment from the other. It is the way these famous festivals in Kerala are celebrated.

Among the most awaited and upcoming Kerala festival and events is the 10 day Onam festival is Kerala's most opulently celebrated festival, honouring King Mahabali, a mythological king of ancient Kerala, whose period is eulogized as the golden age in the history of the state. Onam brings out the true elegance of Kerala; a land where nature is in its full throttle and where the people know how to extract the best out of their life. This is one festival that cuts across the barriers of caste, creed and religion and is marked by cultural events such as folk music and dance performances by locals.

After Onam, Vishu is the most important festival of Kerala, celebrated as the Malayalam New Year day. It is a common belief that the first thing that one sees on waking up on Vishu day ('Vishukkani') is indicative of the fortune of the coming year. At the dawn, the Malayali's begin the first day of the Year by waking up in front of Kani (Kani Kanal), which is bedecked with gold ornaments, white clothes, pots filled up with rice or paddy, bell metal mirror, Konna flowers, halved jack fruits, halved coconuts and yellow cucumber. Behind the pot a garlanded deity of Lord Krishna is kept illuminated by two standing oil lamps. The mosy uncanny part is that Iyers will mot see anything, but a Kani and even children are brought blind folded from their beds to where the Kani is kept.

Karthigai is possibly the only light festival that is celebrated in Malayali houses. The village temple arranges for a bonfire of useless materials and every family takes a burning torch made of palm leaves (Chootu) from this fire to the house. Oil lights are lit in houses and the whole town radiates like a spinning nebula on the face of a black sky, an awesome sight to behold. The place is ready to hold some of the most famous events in Kerala.

Onam Festival - Rangoli - Kerala

Minute Minutes of Merry

Thiruvatira is a women's festival, celebrated widely in Kerala in the Malayalam month of Dhanu. The festival commemorates the death of Kamadeva, the cupid of Hindu mythology. The aim of the celebration is conjugal harmony and happiness, with the women adorned in colourful sarees, wearing white, black or red marks, lower down the middle of their foreheads close to the part where the two eyebrows embrace one another and chewing betel leaves, thus reddening their mouth and lips. Enjoy festive tours fo Kerala to be a part of the festive celebrations.

Christmas, too is widely celebrated by Christians and others, to honour the glory of the nativity of Jesus. Perhaps, no other festival is so enriched with so many customs and ceremonies, as Christmas. One can look at the wide array of pageant like Christmas Star, Christmas tree, the Crib, Christmas cake, Christmas presents and above all Santa Claus. The last named is quite a fascinating identity, who claims to be the very incarnation of the most vibrant and quintessence of the gayest of all the festivals. The festival of Pongal is also celebrated in a gala way. However, the practice of making pongal with the new grain and milk, as in Tamil Nadu, is absent in Malayali homes. It is fascinating to see the entire courtyard decorated with Kolam (floral designs made of white stone powder). The next day to Pongal is 'Kanu' or 'Mattu Pongal', which is usually lionized by preparing different types of mixed rice preparations and offering it to crows early in the morning before bath, by the women. The function is generally observed for the happiness of ancestors of the family and the brothers give no cash presents to younger sisters, as in Tamil Nadu. All the festivals of Kerala are an unique time to get drenched in the festivities of the Kerala people.