The festivities of Onam begin well in advance. Every household makes colorful pookkalams (floral decorations) in the courtyards. On the day of Onam, a special 3-4course meal called Onam Sadya (Onam meal) is made in each household which is served with rice, rasam and sambhar (pulse preparations) on plantain leaves. The traditional dessert for this feast is payasam a delicious sweet made with rice and milk.

Onam is marked by joy throughout Kerala.In the town of Thrissur, several elephants are bedecked with silk and ornate jewelry and paraded majestically in a spectacular procession. It ends with a colorful and glittering display of fireworks. Across the state, people throng to watch special Kathakali (a classical dance form of the state) performances where actors dressed in colorful masks and resplendent clothing enact stories from the Indian epics. Also seen during Onam is Pulikali or Kaduvakali, where young boys painted in bright yellows and reds with black tiger-like stripes dance to the drumbeats enacting popular folk tales. Boat races called vallamkali, where almost a hundred men in each boat push the oars in unison, race their individual snake-shaped boats, are the most well known spectacular event of the Onam festivities.



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