Onam
26 August 2026 · movable holiday — Row, row! The snake boat sails above the carpet of flowers!
Onam is the biggest festival of Kerala in south-western India and marks the harvest. According to tradition, the just and kind king Mahabali returns at this time to visit his subjects, and people welcome him with joy. The celebrations last several days, and the most important one is Thiruvonam. Its date depends on both the Sun and the Moon: it falls on the day when the Moon is in the lunar mansion Shravana (Thiruvonam in Malayalam) during the solar month of Chingam, which runs roughly from mid-August to mid-September. Families lay out colourful flower carpets called pookalam in front of their homes. A generous feast, the sadya, is served on banana leaves. Kerala also hosts races of long snake boats, where dozens of rowers paddle in time with songs. That is why a boat of stars rows across the sky above a carpet of flowers. The exact date changes every year, so check the calendar for the year in question.
Flying across the sky: An ethereal, bluish-silver figure made of luminous dots and thin lines like a constellation: a long snake boat with a high curved prow and dozens of tiny star-point rowers, gliding across the night sky above a faint flower-carpet pattern of glowing dots
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