Festivities everywhere...

Wherever Keralites reside, they form associations in a bid to uphold their unique culture and tradition. Onam is one festival that every Keralite celebrates in an elaborate manner. Every year Indian cultural associations in the UAE put in their best to make the festival memorable. Celebrations go on for almost two months around Onam.

As part of the celebration, the story of Mahabali is reenacted with someone dressed up as Mahabali. The pageant might even have an artificial caparisoned elephant under a decorated parasol, moving on wheels. Mahabali is depicted as a man with a paunch denoting the amount of feasts he would be partaking in among his happy subjects. The daylong festive events include a traditional grand feast served on plantain leaves.

Vallamkali

Other Onam fare includes athapoo or floral carpet competitions organised for ladies and a host of cultural events ranging from music concerts to classical and folk dances.

Instead of the vallamkali or the snakeboat race that takes place during the season in Kerala, there are folk dances by men or children to the tune of traditional boat songs to denote the boat races.

Classical dances include Mohiniyattom, Kuchippudi and Bharatnatyam performed by students of various music and dance academies in the emirates.

Folk dances include Pulikali where men dressed and painted as tigers perform to lilting percussion music, Chakyarkoothu, usually performed by men in colourful costumes, and Thiruvathirakali performed by a group of women who dance gracefully in a circle to rhythmic steps.

Music concerts performed by invited singers and television and film stars from Kerala are crowdpullers and usually form part of the events organised by various associations during the season in the UAE. Sometimes there are comic skits, mimicry, magic shows, kadhaprasangam or musical story telling, etc to keep the crowd entertained with variety.

This year, Indian Association Dubai celebrated Onam in conjunction with Al Marai, Western Union Money Transfer and Wall Street Exchange as well as a host of co-sponsors on August 17 at Al Nasr Leisureland. Singers such as Biju Narayanan, Radhika Tilak, Shweta Mohan, Arun Raj and Parvathy performed at the event.

Vakkom Jayalal, General Secretary of Abu Dhabi Malayalee Samajam, says, "This time we will have floral carpet competition for ladies, and then Onam celebration consisting of cultural programmes on September 6 and a grand Onasadhya on September 7."

United Malayalee Association, a federal organisation of eight well-established Malayalee associations in the UAE, is celebrating Onam along with Lulu in a grand event titled LULU Onam 2007 at Al Nasr Leisureland Ice Rink and Nashuan Hall in Dubai on August 31. Envisaged as a full-day event, there will be cultural programmes, competitions, music concert by television superstars Bala Bhaskar, Jayaraj Warrier and others as well as Onasadhya.

Cultural programmes

"Indian Association Sharjah (IAS) is celebrating Onam with all fervour and enthusiasm with a host of cultural activities to entertain the whole Malayalee as well as Indian community," says K.A. Mathews, President, IAS. The inaugural function was on August 17 with chendamelam (percussion music), thalapoli (welcome by girls holding plates with flowers and lighted lamps), Thiruvathira, etc at the IAS Community Hall.

Various programmes, seminars and Onam-related sports and cultural competitions continue on the following days to culminate in a grand Onasadhya and cultural programme on September 7.