Latitude, longitude and time zone 13.08, 80.27
Asia/Kolkata · UTC+5:30
The date of a festival depends on the place.
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A tithi that ends at dusk in Chennai can still be running at dusk a thousand kilometres west, which moves the day. Sunrise and sunset here are computed for the place above.
When it falls next
Kerala calendar, computed for Chennai
- Monday, 13 September 2027
- Friday, 1 September 2028
- Wednesday, 22 August 2029
Where Thiruvonam · Onam falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 13 Sep
- 2028: 1 Sep, 11 days earlier
- 2029: 22 Aug, 11 days earlier
The last days of Onam
Part of the same festival, in order, in the Kerala calendar
- Uthradam · First Onam …
- Thiruvonam · Onam(this page) …
- Avittam · Third Onam …
The dates, year by year
Kerala calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The day Mahabali, the good asura king whom Vamana sent below, is allowed back to see that his people are still happy. The pookkalam of flower petals is laid in the courtyard through the ten days before it, growing a ring each day; on Thiruvonam the Onasadya of two dozen dishes is served on a plantain leaf, and the vallamkali snake boat races and the pulikali tiger dance fill the days around it.
- Deity
- Mahabali, Vamana, Vishnu
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
Mahabali, the grandson of Prahlada, was a king so generous that the gods feared his power, and when the boy Vamana asked him for three paces of land he gave them knowing who asked, and bent his own head for the third. The old Onam song remembers his reign as a time when all people were equal and there was no lie, no theft and no false measure, and Onam is the yearly remembering of that kingdom as much as a harvest feast. The Thrikkakara temple near Kochi, where Vamana is worshipped, is held to be the place it happened, which is why the clay figure set in every courtyard is called Thrikkakkarayappan, the lord of Thrikkakara. The proverb says one should eat the Onam feast even if one has to sell one's land for it, and in the old households the karanavar gave new clothes, the onakkodi, to everyone in the house and to all who worked for it.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Thiruvonam · Onam: how it is kept
Keep ready
- thumba, chethi, mukkutti and other flowers for the pookkalam
- cow dung for smearing the courtyard
- clay Onathappan figures
- rice-flour paste to whiten them
- a nilavilakku with oil and wicks
- ada for the offering
- onakkodi, new clothes for every member of the house
- fresh plantain leaves, one for each diner
- a rope and plank for the oonjal
The steps
0 of 10 done
What is cooked
The Onasadya: upperi and sharkara varatti, inji puli, mango and lime pickles, pappadam and pazham; parippu with ghee; sambar; avial, thoran, olan, kalan, erissery, koottu curry, pachadi and kichadi; pulissery, rasam and moru; and two or more payasams, the ada pradhaman with the palada or the parippu pradhaman. Travancore, Kochi and Malabar each have their own count and order of dishes, and every house its own way, but the plantain leaf, the rice with parippu first and the moru last are common to all. The Onathappan's offering is ada, rice parcels filled with coconut and jaggery.
The hour
Clock times for Monday, 13 September 2027 at Chennai
Thiruvonam nakshatra at sunrise in Chingam. When the star prevails on two days in the month the second is taken. The Onasadya is at midday.
The main rite. Thiruvonam nakshatra at sunrise in Chingam, the second day when the star holds two sunrises. The Onathappan is worshipped with ada at dawn, and the sadya is served at midday, when the whole family can sit down together.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Sunrise | 05:58 | the udaya tithi, the tithi running as the sun comes up |
| Madhyahna | 12:05 | midday, the midpoint of sunrise and sunset |
Sunrise 05:58, sunset 18:12, UTC+5.5. These are the instants the rule is read at, not the temple's own puja times, which every temple prints for itself.
The day itself
| What | When | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Tithi | Shukla Trayodasi from previous day 22:13 until next day 00:40 | then Shukla Chaturdasi until 2 days later, 02:49 |
| Nakshatra | Shravana until 06:05 | then Dhanishta until next day 08:59 |
| Rahu kaal | 07:30 to 09:01 (1 h 32 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 10:33 to 12:05 (1 h 32 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 13:37 to 15:08 (1 h 32 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:40 to 12:29 (0 h 49 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 16:32 | moonset next day 04:29 |
For Monday, 13 September 2027 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
No fast; Onam is the feast of the year. The sadya is strictly vegetarian, ending with the payasams.
What is avoided
No meat or fish in the sadya, and none cooked at all in houses that keep the day strictly. A family in mourning for a death that year keeps no Onam, and in many houses the leaf is never folded away from oneself, which says the meal was poor.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
Kerala's own festival, kept by Malayalis of every religion. The same nakshatra is marked monthly in Tamil Nadu as a Perumal day, and the Tamil Onam of a few Kerala-border districts follows the Kerala date.
In other regions
- Tamil Nadu
- Kanyakumari and the Tamil districts on the Kerala border keep Onam on the Kerala date with the pookkalam and the sadya. The Sangam poem Maduraikanchi remembers an Onam festival for Vishnu at Madurai, though Tamil Nadu has long since let it go, and the star is kept monthly as a Perumal day.
- Kerala (the dates above)
- Kerala's own festival, kept by Malayalis of every faith and by the state with a week of public celebration; the Thrikkakara Vamana temple near Kochi is its centre, the snake boats race on the Pampa and at Aranmula, and Thrissur has its pulikali on the fourth day.
The dates above are the Kerala reckoning, because that is the calendar this key belongs to. Switch the tradition on the calendar page to see how another one dates the same day.
Greeting
What is said to family and friends on the day
ഓണാശംസകൾOnashamsakal
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
- Ernakulam, Kerala
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. The Divya Desam where Onam began: the clay Thrikkakara Appan set out in every Malayali home is this Lord.
Temples of Vishnu near you
Not recorded for this day in particular: the nearest temples of the day's own gods, for a reader whose own temple is not listed above.
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Venkatakrishnan (Parthasarathy) with the arrow scars on his face
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · The eight forms of Lakshmi in shrines on four floors, facing the sea
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Adhivyadhihara Bhaktha Anjaneyar, thirty-two feet tall from a single block of granite
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Neervanna Perumal below and Ranganathar on the hill, in four postures
1 more temple in this gazetteer is recorded for the day. Find temples near you.
Your family's own temple comes first, and its calendar is the one that decides.
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A temple is listed here only where the gazetteer's own line names this day, or where this day's own entry names the town, or where the day belongs to the ancestors or the nagas and the temple is recorded for that rite. Where neither table says anything, nothing is listed as kept for the day; where fewer than three are, the nearest temples of the day's own gods are added under a heading of their own.
Mantras
The prayers said with the day. Each opens with its words and meaning.
Every date here is computed from the Sun and Moon for the place entered, by the rule printed beside it.
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A printed panchangam can differ by a day where an almanac reads a tithi at a different instant, and a family's own custom always comes first. Where the practice genuinely varies, the text says so rather than choosing for you.