MALAYSIANS celebrate many festivals in this country and the Malayalee community originating from Kerala, India, celebrate the Onam festival today.
The harvest festival lasts for 10 days and ends on the Thiruonam day.
Meaningful: Children praying and preparing the Pookalam. Each day, which is represented by stars, are dedicated to a certain group among the community in India. Farmers, fishermen, the elders and children are each given a day to rejoice with a string of activities planned for them.
“In India, people from all walks of life are recognised for their hardwork. There are boat races for the fishermen and good food for everyone,” said N.R. Nambiar, the honorary general secretary of the All Malaysia Malayalee Association (AMMA).
The mythological history behind the celebration revolves around King Mahabali who once ruled Kerala.
The much loved king visits Kerala every year during Onam and his subjects organise the celebrations to welcome Mahabali home.
The first day begins with members of the family having a bath. However, unlike other communities, the Malayalees do not have an oil bath.
Nambiar said oil is used for cleansing purposes so the people in Kerala have an oil bath every day except on auspicious days.
After this, a unique Kolam (colourful design) made from fresh flowers called Pookalam is placed in front of the house. Since it is the harvest festival, the state of Kerala is a riot of colours as the fields are golden and full of fruits and flowers.
“Each day more flowers are added to the Pookalam. Women use different colours of the same flower or different flowers to brighten the kolam,” he said.
He added that the Pookalam would be placed on sand so each day the ladies would sprinkle water on the flowers to keep them fresh.
A replica of King Mahabali called the Matheva is placed in the centre of the Pookalam. They do this in the hope that Mahabali would be pleased with their efforts and greetings.
Most important is the Onasadya or a feast comprising of vegetarian dishes for everyone.
Onam also means new clothes for everyone in the family and most times it would be traditional outfits.
The women and the men wear an interesting costume called the Mundu.
The Mundu is two pieces of white material with interwoven gold threads and the women wear them with the auspicious gold, red or yellow blouses. People also refrain from wearing black.
They also refrain from sweeping the house and gifts are given to workers and labourers in the farm.
In Malaysia, since most Malayalees do not have holidays for Onam, the celebration is held on the weekend closest to Onam.
The local Kerala associations or samajams hold special events for members in their respective states.
Malaysians would have the onasadya (feast) at home or even at the samajams.
Some of the most important dishes are rice, sambhar, avial, pulicherry, kalan, olan, upperi, meerku varati and savoury inji puli.
“Since it is the harvest festival, the dishes will definitely have rice. Usually the samajams will also organise lunches and usually it would be pot luck,” he said.
There must also be two sweet desserts called payasam which come in two colours, the dark payasam (prathaman) and white payasam (velethe payasam).
All over Malaysia, the samajams would organise cultural performances by local talents. Among the Kerala art forms presented here are Onnamthullal, Kaikotti Kali and Mohini attam.
“The performers are trained locally by our own dancers and we usually ask local talents to perform at our shows,” he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment