What is Onam? Everything you need to know about Kerala's harvest festival

Dubai: If you have noticed banana leaves, floral carpets and festive outfits taking over neighbourhoods like Karama and Bur Dubai this week, here is the story behind it all.

Onam is Kerala's biggest and most beloved festival, a ten-day harvest celebration that this year runs to eleven, and it is one of the most widely observed regional festivals among the UAE's large Indian expat community.

Onam is rooted in the story of King Mahabali, a mythical ruler whose reign is remembered as a golden era of prosperity, equality and abundance, a time when there was no poverty, no inequality and no sorrow. Tradition holds that Mahabali was sent to the underworld by the god Vamana, an avatar of Vishnu, but was granted one wish: to return to his beloved Kerala once a year to visit his people.

Onam marks that annual homecoming. The festival is essentially a welcome, an entire state putting out its finest food, flowers and festivities for a king who ruled thousands of years ago and is still celebrated as one of the most benevolent figures in Kerala's mythology.

The festival runs for ten star days in the Malayalam calendar, which uses nakshatras or lunar mansion stars to mark important dates. It begins with Atham, the first star day, and ends with Thiruvonam, the most important and festive day of the entire celebration.

This year, Thiruvonam falls on 26 August. The celebrations began on 16 August with Atham, but because the Visakham star fell across two calendar dates, 19 and 20 August, the festival runs to eleven calendar days rather than the usual ten. Gulf News had rectified that the last time this happened was in 2017.

Each day of Onam has its own significance, but the activities that define the festival as a whole include:

Pookalam: A floral carpet made from fresh flowers, laid at the entrance of the home each morning and built up layer by layer across the ten days, growing larger and more elaborate as Thiruvonam approaches. Each day's design is traditionally more complex than the last.

Onam Sadhya: The feast that most people associate with the festival. A traditional vegetarian spread served on a banana leaf, or kootan, with anywhere from 24 to 33 dishes depending on the household, including sambar, avial, olan, thoran, erissery, kalan, rasam, papadum, banana chips, pickles and payasam. It is eaten by hand, sitting on the floor, and it is one of the most elaborate meals in Indian cuisine.

Thiruvathira: A classical dance performed by women in a circle, traditionally on Thiruvonam night, accompanied by folk songs.

Vallamkali: The famous snake boat race, held on Kerala's backwaters, where teams of over 100 rowers compete in long, narrow boats to the beat of traditional songs. It is one of the most spectacular sporting events in India.

Pulikali: A folk art performance in which performers paint their bodies as tigers and leopards and dance through the streets. Associated particularly with Thrissur and performed on the fourth day of Onam.

Traditional games: Including tug of war, kabaddi and various other outdoor games played as part of community celebrations.

The UAE is home to around 4.5 million Indians, with more than one million estimated to be from Kerala, making Onam one of the most widely observed regional festivals among the Indian expat community.

For Malayalis living in the UAE, Onam is not just a cultural memory but an active celebration. Community organisations, malls, restaurants and families hold events across Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, and the preparations are visible weeks in advance. Fresh vegetables, coconut, banana leaves and other sadhya ingredients are flown in from Kerala specially for the season.

Onam celebrations in the UAE also extend well beyond Thiruvonam itself. Community organisations, families and groups hold celebrations over successive weekends, with mega events in the first two weekends of September featuring Mollywood stars Mammootty and Kunchacko Boban at Sharjah Expo Centre.

Unlike many religious festivals, Onam is a state festival of Kerala rather than a specifically Hindu celebration, and is observed by Keralites across religions and communities. The welcome it extends to King Mahabali is one that Keralites of every background have historically shared, which is part of why it travels so well and why its traditions feel so naturally at home in a multicultural city like Dubai.

If you have not tried a sadhya on a banana leaf yet, Thiruvonam on 26 August is the day to fix that.