Vishu

How it is kept

1. 01

   Vishukkani arranged at night and seen first on waking

2. 02

   Vishukkaineettam: coins given by elders to children

3. 03

   Vishukkani darshan at Guruvayur

4. 04

   Vishu sadya and the reading of the Vishuphalam

01The Vishukkani

Late on the eve, the eldest woman of the house sets the kani in the puja room: a bell-metal uruli holding raw rice, a golden cucumber, coconut, jackfruit and mango, a folded mundu, a gold ornament, a valkannadi mirror, a grantha or a book, and above all the yellow flowers of the konna tree, the Indian laburnum, before an image of Krishna, with a nilavilakku lit beside it. Before dawn she wakes the family one by one and leads each in with eyes covered, so that the first thing they see in the new year is the kani. Then the elders give coins to the children, the Vishukkaineettam.

02At Guruvayur and Sabarimala

Guruvayur opens before dawn for the Vishukkani darshan of Guruvayurappan, and the queue forms in the night. Sabarimala opens for the Vishu festival as well. In the home, the day brings firecrackers, the Vishu sadya, and the bitter-sweet veppampoo rasam or mampazha pulissery in some regions, tasting the year to come. The almanac reading, the Vishuphalam, gives the forecast for the year.