About
Vishu
When the festival of Baisakhi is being celebrated
in the northern parts of India, the Keralites celebrate the Malayala
New Year with the festival of Vishu. The people of kerala celebrate
this festival in a traditional manner. They follow the custom of viewing
the Vishukani( the lucky sight) in the morning of the festival. The
vishukani is later taken and distributed among the poor people.
The people buy new clothes (kodi vastram) for the occasion and the
elders of the family distribute tokens of money to the children, servants
and tenants. These tokens are called the vishukaineetam and are usually
in form of coins. People carry on this custombelieving that in this
way, their children will be blessed with prosperity in future.
The families then celebrate the day with joyous abandon by bursting
fire crackers after the vishukani. While the men and the children engage
in bursting crackers, the women start cooking a variety of delicacies
for the day's lunch. The feast or the 'sadya' is prepared by the women
of the household and the whole family sits down to enjoy the vishu
lunch together. The dishes prepared from the vegetables and fruits
that are abundant in the season like jackfruits, mangoes, pumkins,
a variety of gourds, and coconuts.
The young people of the village go from house to house, dance and
collect money. They usually do this in groups dressed up as the
'chozhi' with dried banana leaves tied around their waists and masks
on their faces. On this day, the people give money to them willingly.
By the evening they have enough money to spend in the Vishuwela (the
new year fair). The evenings are spent in these fairs where there is
a lot of revelry, with music and various dance troupes.
The
famous temples like Guruvayur, Sabarimala and Padmanaba Shetram are
filled with devotees. Special pujas are held in these temples where
the people go to worship and pray for a prosperous New Year. They also
view the Vishukanis that are prepared in each of these temples.
The Vishukani or the auspicious sight is the arrangement of 'konna
pua', a yellow laburnum flower, fruits like jackfruit and mangoes,
vegetables like gourds and snake gourds, ornaments made of gold, bell
metal mirror with a white, pleated cloth tied to it's handle (supposedly
used by Goddess Parvati), the traditional bronze vessel 'Uruli' filled
with rice, items used for daily worship (asthamangalam), clothes with
pure gold zari, a split coconut, some coins in a silver cup, some water
in 'od ', a traditional vessel and a 'grantha', which is a palm leaf
manuscript or the Bhagwat gita.
Vishu
kani
The Vishukani is prepared by the oldest member of the family the night
before Vishu and the family members are supposed to view it only after
midnight. The kani is place in front of an image of Lord Vishnu and
diyas are lit up (these are usually normal lamps but in some cases
they use lamps made of coconut halves). Early in the morning of the
festival, the oldest member of the family, after having viewed the
kani and finished her puja, blindfolds each member of the family and
sets them in front of the display. The idea being, that all the members
of the family should look at the vishukani the first thing in the morning.
They first look at the image, then the yellow light of the diyas and
the kani in the yellow vessels. So the dominant colour of the festival
is yellow. The Malayalees believe that viewing of this display
in the festival day ensures good fortune through out the coming year.
The vishukani ritual is observed in the expectation of plenty in the
new year.
