Malayalees all over the world celebrate the Vishu as their new year. Since the mother tongue of the Kerala people is Malayalam, other people call them malayalees. This celebration is as per Malayalam calendar and usually falls on 14th or 15th of April. Some other Indian states also celebrate the same day as their new year. For Example Tamil Nadu celebrates the same day as Tamil New Year and Bengalis celebrate the day as Bengali New Year.
Traditions: Kerala astrologers are calculating Malayalam astrology as per rasi, which is calculated according to the position of sun related to the earth in different months. They will divide each year into different rasi as per sun's position. As per this calculation, sun enters into medam rasi by crossing equator on the 1st day of Medam month of regional Malayalam Calendar. Malayalees consider this day as New Year and celebrate it as vishu. It is important to note that this is not the first day of the Malayalam calendar. Malayalam calendar begins from chingam (August 14th or 15th). Since Hindus are strong believers of Astrology, astrologers will do lot of predictions for the coming year. All Malayalam newspapers will publish these predictions for each person as per their birth-dates and birth star. This prediction, which is prepared by leading astrologers of Kerala, is known as vishu phalam (predictions).
Vishu Celebrations: This festival celebrations usually start with Vishu kani. After the kani, there will be Fire crackers, kaineettam and sadhya. People of most other Indian states use firecrackers for Diwali. However, in Kerala, main use of firecrackers is for this festival to welcome the New Year. Lot of temporary firecracker stalls will be setup along the side of road.
Vishu Kani: Kani is the most important part for this festival. People believe that seeing kani, at the dawn of this day will bring luck and prosperity for the next year. Kani is normally set in a circular metal plate or in circular brass vessel known as uruli.
Hindus believe that whatever one see first in the morning will decide the luck for that day and call it as kani. The same way they believe that, the New Year should start with seeing good and lucky objects, to bring luck and prosperity for the whole year. Senior lady of the house will set kani on the preceding night, so that she can also see kani at the early morning of the day. The Vishu kani is made with auspicious items such as Rice, coconut, gold , money, new cloth, areca nut, betel leaves, fruits, vegetables like mangoes, yellow cucumber, and jack-fruit, along with the konna pove (Indian Laburnum). The entire above item will be set in the circular plate or in a uruli. Behind the kani plate, they will keep a mirror and a statue of garlanded Lord Krishna. She will also keep a Hindu prayer lamp called Nilavilakku, at the side of kani.
Kani Kanal:- In the early morning, senior lady of the house will get up and go directly to the room where she has kept the vishu kani. She will ignite the lamp Nilavilaku to see kani. Then she will take bath and will wake the other members of the house one by one by closing their eyes with her hands. She will guide them to the room where she has set the kani. Then she will remove her hands from their eyes so that they can see kani as the first thing on the morning. She will repeat this with every members of the house including kids. This tradition is kani kanal (Seeing Kani). After kani kanal all the kids and other junior members of house will get a small donation from their father, which is known as the vishu kaineettam. After kani kanal people will start bursting different firecrackers in front of the house.
Vishu sadhya:- Vishu sadhya is the lunch of the day and it is served in the afternoon. In southern part of Kerala. This is a traditional pure vegetarian lunch served in banana leaf, where as in northern Kerala (Malabar area) it is a special non-vegetarian lunch prepared with fish and goat meat served in Banana leaf.
Vishu greetings:-Sending greeting cards to your friends and relatives for vishu has become a tradition for Malayalees. Lot of kerala theme cards is available for this festival, with various subjects like vallam kali (Boat race), katha kali, and sceneries from various parts of Kerala. Lot of online greeting card websites are also has lot of special greetings in their collection.
