As weather is our specialty, we ought to look at festivals from this perspective!

Onam celebrates King Mahabali’s annual revisit of his land. It coincides with the first rice crop that had been sown with the monsoon rains of June.

Therefore many refer to it as harvest festival of Kerala. Onam falls in the first month of the Malayalam calendar, Chingam.

It is when, after the dark and rainy days of the southwest monsoon of the previous months starting June, there is a sunny respite before the rains of the northeast monsoon take over.

However, precipitation and humidity vary from year to year and festivities may be accompanied by heavy showers, thunderstorms and lightning, but there have been years when the rains were rather scarce during the 10-day festival.

Floods of 2018 as well as the tragedy in Wayanad earlier this year pointed out the changing seasonality of rains and its unreliability. It is a serious concern which is amplified by rapid urbanization and unplanned construction can lead to environmental problems in Kerala.

Landslides and floods are the immediate results of such environmental neglect. Onam is an occasion to reflect on the role of copious rains and fertile soil for the land of Mahabali!

We wish everybody a very Happy Thiruvonam!