Onam Thiruvonam 2025 Date

About Onam Thiruvonam

Thiruvonam is the tenth and climactic day of Onam, observed when the Thiruvonam (Shravana) star rises in the Malayalam month of Chingam. On this day Kerala believes its old asura king Mahabali, sent to the underworld by Vishnu's dwarf avatar Vamana, returns for one visit home.

The ritual heart of Thiruvonam is Thrikkakara near Kochi — said to be Mahabali's capital and home to the only Vamanamurthy shrine in Kerala, where the idol shows Vamana about to set his third step on the king's head. A temple inscription mentions Onam as early as 861 CE, and the festival was once run jointly by 61 local chieftains. At home, families place small conical clay figures painted red — the Onathappan or Trikkakara Appan, standing for Mahabali and Vamana — at the centre of the pookalam (flower carpet). Before dawn they offer ata, a simple cake of rice flour and jaggery. The Onam Sadya that follows is eaten on a banana leaf in a fixed order of eleven to thirteen dishes. The same star is honoured in Thiruvananthapuram as the birth nakshatra of Padmanabhaswamy.