Tuesday, 28 August 2012

Onam and the Ritual of feeding poor people


Once upon a time some men were travelling in a boat named Palliyodam. The boat was filled with goods. The goods consisted mainly of food items. They were sailing effortlessly.

Suddenly a strange thing happened to their boat. The boat got stuck in the river. Efforts were taken to take out the boat from the lock down. The efforts went in vain. A kind hearted and spiritual man named Bhattathiripad was the in charge of the boat. He ordered the oarsmen to push the boat from behind. They got down and tried to push the boat from behind but the efforts did not paid off. Now everybody in the boat were sad and depressed. They were worried about the eatables because it would perish soon.

After a few hours Bhattathiripad called the crew. He told them that he would go to the bank and return with whatever help he can get. Everybody agreed with his plan. He took a small boat and sailed to the river bank.

He reached to the river bank. He could see a maiden hut there. He decided to go there and ask for help. He knocked the door. A widow opened the door and asked him to come inside. When he went inside he found a boy crying. He asked the widow for the reason. She told him that there is no grocery in the house and they were hungry from a few days.

This made him sad. He decided to help the poor family. He told the widow that he would return after a short while. He went back to the boat took some of the eatables and returned. He gave the eatables to the poor family. This made him and the poor family happy. They started praising him.
In the meantime a miracle happened. The boat which was not able to free after a lot of efforts started sailing. Everybody on the boat was astonished and free from tension. They started thanking the Lord.

The boat sailed to the bank. One of the oarsmen went to the hut to inform the master that the boat has reached to the bank. When he knew that he was happy. He gave some supplies to the poor family and returned on the boat.

Since that day, it has become a tradition to feed a poor person at least on the day of Onam.

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