Almost all festivals of Kerala are festivals of home coming for Keralites working outside his home town or village.Quite a lot of Keralites live in almost all countries of the world because Kerala even though rich with beautiful nature does not offer much on the economic front.
You can watch water flowing down over rocks amidst thick green forests,lakes and rivers running all over Kerala land and long beaches on one side of the state through its full length.But all these natural beauty you can enjoy during a vacation or holiday.When the money in pocket flows out you will have to move out of Kerala to fill the pockets again.
Very few Keralites are lucky enough to live and work in their home state if not necessarily in their native village or town.Others always live away from Kerala with an undying wish for living in Kerala.So festivals turn out to be family get togethers when relatives living and working in different parts of the world join at their native place.
Of all the festivals of Kerala Onam seems to be the most popular celebrated by all people of Kerala irrespective of religious divisions.Onam is celebrated using an excuse of a story possibly scripted by some one wise enough and rich in imagination.But still we Keralites would like to firmly believe just like a religious belief that the story of Onam is real and there really was a good king called Mahabali with an utopian life under his rule.
I will reproduce below a poem written by me which explains on rule of Mahabali the King and his days of happy life for all those people lived under him.
But the story says that this good King was sent to the other world called as pathalam by the real God who might have got irritated by lack of sorrow or unhappiness among human beings living under King Mahabali.If there is no sorrow and unhappiness ,who will cry for mercy of God?
But while being sentenced to pathalam,King Mahabali prayed to God to allow him to come and visit his land and people once in a year.We celebrate our greatest festival called Onam when the legendory King visit us for ten days in an year
Onam and King Mahabali
Long long back
We had this King called Mahabali
When he was ruling,
there was no sins.
No looting, no cheating
No lies, no killings
No rapes, no beatings
No double standards,
No scheming treachery.
No shortage of food
No rich and poor
No sorrows, no pain
No one was afraid of anyone
No one was doubtful about any one
No one was expecting trouble from any one
No locks and safe lockers
No jails and no police
Every one was loving and caring
Every one was helpful
Every one was there when you need help
Every one loved every one.
In our land, every year
We still celebrate ten days of festival
remembering those old days of happiness
Dreaming with no reason,
those dreamy days will come back.
Dreaming that our old King Mahabali
will come back from death
and rule us again.
with no looting, cheating
with no lies and killings
with no rapes and beatings
with no shortage of food
with no rich and poor
with no sorrows and pain.
We call those ten days
Onam festival days
Onam days of King Mahabali
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