Sanjose A Thomas

Onam is celebrated with all pomp and glory after a long covid break in Kerala and almost across the globe by Keralites after being mired by the pandemic effect which brought almost everything to a standstill for long two years. We regained our festive mood and onam also has become a moment to rekindle our lost spirits. Almost all our national and state festivals does this purpose but onam has a definite speciality involved in it as more than a harvest festival it is also a time for homecoming for Malayalis across the world. We realise that we have a place to designate as our own, we have a house to get back, we have those good old memories, those men and women with whom we shared our childhood, those fun filled moments to cherish and above all we realise that we belong to somewhere and of course to someone. Those lines of separation are broken, those myriad boundaries are transcended and we celebrate the festival of spring with all hue and cry making floral carpets and enjoying almost every moment with our dear and near relishing the onam feast often known as ‘Onasadya’ and spending a long vacation fruitfully bearing witness to all those childhood pranks revisited.
The way Onam is celebrated also changed over a period of time along with the very approach towards the festivity. Kerala known for its hospitality and unbridled passion for togetherness celebrated our ‘State Festival’ also in the same letter and spirit upholding our brotherhood and oneness ensuring that none is missed out and almost everyone and everything included even including the animals(pets) at home giving them treats of the day. The entire desham(region) was elated by the spirit with people irrespective of their religion, caste, creed, economic and socio political affiliations came together to commemorate those moments of togetherness. There was a local onam commemoration with people visiting almost all houses across the region, making and sharing food items, giving gifts, exchanging pleasantries and valuables and ensuring that none is left out in this process. Spring was coming not only adding colours to the surroundings but to the minds of people and the day of ‘Thiruvonam’ was nothing but a day of feasting which always ensured that none in the whole desham remained hungry without having a meal at least on this day considered auspicious for everyone born as a Keralite.
These days though we commemorate onam with the same spirit and vigour, we realise that somehow we missed that old splendour not in terms of materials involved but in terms of the harmony and affection we cherished during our older times. Seeds of hate are sowed by people all around casting aspersions of doubt even on a festivity of spring and flowers spreading unwarranted notions about the same and reducing its mirthfulness and beauty. The very same festival celebrated by our older generation leaving aside all feelings of difference and distinction is targeted by some accusing it as a religious festival symbolising religious meanings and shunning its secular character. This of course is done with vested interests which eventually create deeper wedges between people and communities and may only hamper our spirit of togetherness and unbridled oneness. Along with this another visible trend is the slow but gradual decline in familial involvement in onam celebrations and the development of ‘individualistic onam’ either commemorated by a single household without any neighbourhood or joint family involvement or at times for worse by a single individual without the involvement of even his or her own family. Onam is certainly a time to check for our old friends and foes alike and to ask all of them whether they are doing well and how they do over a period of time. It is also a time when as Malayalees we have a new responsibility added to our kitty that is to check for those faceless and even nameless people hailing from various parts of India and from different states who are here to work for our welfare.
These days ‘Online Onams’ has become the new norm with people more interested in sharing onam pictures in various social media platforms and missing what is known as the team spirit of this great utsav. The way what Sapp and other social media platforms have proliferated and how they started commercialising our festivals is a good testimony for this. When we order ‘instant sadyas’ and eat it on plastic banana leaves and pose for photos with umpteen number of people without even checking for our hungry neighbour somehow and somewhere we are missing the ‘Mavelinadu’ about which we speak almost always during our onam times and we also forget our duty as Christians and as Keralites to our fellow beings.