Vishu Greetings !

Wising all my friends a Happy and prosperous Vishu !

This time we are happy that we got Vishu on a weekend, so we are celebrating vishu with friends this time .Our vishu menu includes Brown rice, Sambar, Avial,Malabar kuttu curry, Sweet kuttu curry, Rasam, Thoran, Parippu, Erisserry,Betroot pachadi, Payasam etc and if I get more time and any more veggies maybe will make 1-2 items more.I have already started pre preprations.My veggies are all chopped and freezed.I just need to cook it tomorrow morning.But still need to do lot of coconut grating and for that I am waiting for my DH to come back from work.He is the official coconut grater of our house, I am bit slow so I always take it as an excuse and leave that job to him.

Finding a konna poovu(Vishu Flower) in U.K is out of question ,but last year after Vishu we found europe version of Konna everywhere and later I saw that flower featured in Mathrubhumi sunday edition(Malayalam daily ) as Europe's Konna ,cant remember the english name of it.This time I looked for it but couldnt find that anywhere.But instead found some wild yellow flowers on the back yard of our apartment.Today me and my lil one went down with scissors and snipped a little of it for our Vishu Kani tomorrow.

So Once again to all my friends, Have a great Vishu !

Vishu

Malayalees around the globe are celebrating Vishu on 15 th of April this year.Vishu is the first day of Malayalam year . Wikipedia says that the occasion signifies the suns transit to first Zoadiac sign as per Indian Astrology.Eventhough the official New year of Malayalees is in Chingam (Aug- Sep) ,Vishu is the Astrological New Year day of Kerala.

Back home Vishukkani is the most important thing about Vishu , we arrange fruits,vegetables,rice, grains etc in our Pooja room where we keep our Gods .We do all the arrangement in the night before and early morning my mom gets up first and she light the lamp(vilakku) and come and call us.We close the eyes and walk to the poojaroom and open our eyes to a bright future ahead by seeing the Vishukkani. Dad gives us kaineetam (money)which is the most exciting part.We also get Kaineetam from our Uncles, Aunts and all elderly persons. So Vishu is season of Pocket money !! In my place ( Kannur ) making uniappam and neyappam is very important for Vishu. So our kitchen will be very busy in the night, we make 100's of uniappam and in my place there is custom where children around the area come in gangs to see the Vishukkani. We have to give Kaineetam and unippam to them. Fire works is the other exciting part( not so excting for me as I m scared of Fire crackers).We spend so much money for it.We start the fire works on the previous night and finish it after seeing the vishukkani in the morning. Last but not least is our delicious sadhya(feast) !!

This year our Vishu is going to here , will really miss the vibrant celebration back home.But I will defintely arrange a Vishukkani and make a Sadhya.