Alea Living

Onam is a festival celebrated in the Kerala (a state of India) . Government of Kerala considers onam as Kerala?s state festival and allocate lot of funds for onam related activities and sports. Along with the onam celebrations of 2008 there will be many onam pookalam competitions in coming weeks (pookalam is an art by flowers). The onam-2008 is on12th September 2008. The Story of onam: The origin ofonam is a story connected with a mythical kingknown asMahabali. Kerala people believe that, thousands of years before a king called Mahabali ruled kerala. As per the story, when Mahabali was ruling kerala there was no poverty, famine and people never use to lie. Since the king Mahabali’s rule was so good, his name spread all over the earth and the heaven. Due to this, the king of heaven Lord Indra got upset. He thought that if Abbotsford Homes For Sale Mahabali’s name spreads like this, soon he will lose the heaven to Mahabali and King Mahabali would become the king of the heaven. So he prayed to Lord Vishnufor help, to protect the heaven from Mahabali (who is a damon king). Accordingly Lord Vishnu visited King Mahabali in the form of a small Brahmin boy and pushed downhim in to a place called Pathalam with his leg.(Pathalam is the world under earth as per Hinduism). However, before pushing downMahabali in to the pathalam, Lord Vishnu blessed mahabali, and permitted him to visit kerala once in a year as long as the world exists. Kerala people celebrate this day as onam. Onam Pookalam: In Malayalam, meaning of the poo is flower and kalam is drawing or artwork done in front of the house. Therefore, the pookalam is the artwork done by fresh flowers in front of the house.