Devotees visiting Koopakaramadom Sreekrishnaswamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram on the occasion of Vishu on Monday (April 14, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Nirmal Harindran
The hope of auspicious new beginnings, family togetherness and the promise of year-long plentifulness and piety marked Vishu celebrations in Kerala on Monday (April 14, 2025).
A significant section of Keralites consider the first day of the annual Malayalam calendar propitious for new ventures and ideal for setting fresh goals.
For many, Vishu entails breaking with a bleak past for novel and relatively more productive pathways in life.
The Vishu Kani ritual is central to the festival. It is essentially an aesthetic arrangement of seasonal fruits, local vegetables, rice, paddy stalks, coconuts, and sugarcane stems topped with golden-hued Kani Konna (Indian Laburnum) blossoms and flanked by lighted lamps and statuettes of Hindu gods.
Families customarily view the comely arrangement first thing on Vishu day.
For many, the display flags the guarantee of a cornucopia of blessings and abundance in the New Year, the arrival of the spring sowing season and the promise of a rich harvest. Exchanging gifts, sumptuous feasting, and bursting of fire-crackers characterise Vishu festivities.
Families adorned in traditional Kerala attire visited temples across the State. Sabarimala, Guruvayoor, and Sree Padmanabha Swamy temples reportedly experienced a higher footfall than the previous year.
At least 30,000 people booked online to attend the Vishu Pooja at Sabarimala. Temple priests distributed coin-shaped lockets of the principal deity, Ayyappa, to devotees who gathered to witness the Vishu Kani ritual.
Devotees visiting Koopakaramadom Sreekrishnaswamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram on the occasion of Vishu on Monday (April 14, 2025.
| Photo Credit:
Nirmal Harindran
Vishu protest
Vishu was also a day of protest for Asha workers.
On the 62nd day of their sit-in protest before the Government Secretariat for minimum wages, the members of the Kerala State ASHA Workers Association observed Vishu to spotlight their demands.
They set up a Vishu Kani in front of their agitation venue, and S. Amit, 10, son of a striking ASHA, joined the protesters dressed as the mythical Krishnan, the Hindu deity considered the festival’s mascot.
The Health Department, drawing upon the Vishu tradition of gifting friends and family currency and coins, launched an online contribution scheme to benefit children suffering from rare ailments.
Published – April 14, 2025 10:57 am IST
