Onam is the national festival of Kerala. It marks the homecoming of legendary King Mahabali and is an annual harvest festival. It is a popular festival among the cultural repertoire of Malayalees, and falls in the month of Chingam (August/September as per the Gregorian calendar), the first month of the Malayalam calendar, and lasts for ten days. Traditionally celebrated as a harvest festival, mythologically it is linked to Malayalee–Hindu folktales; but Onam is celebrated by people of all religions .
