The Onakkodi: How Kerala Gifts New Clothes for Onam

What the Onakkodi is

The Onakkodi is new cloth, given as a gift at Onam. The word simply joins Onam and kodi, the Malayalam word for a length of fresh unwashed cloth. In the older Kerala home, the head of the household would set aside money through the year to buy new clothes for everyone under the roof, and the pieces would be handed out on Uthradam, the day before Thiruvonam. Wearing that new cloth the next morning for worship, for the sadhya, and for the visit to the elders, was the whole point. It was a small yearly promise that the family would be looked after.

Who gives to whom

Traditionally the elders give and the younger ones receive. Grandparents to grandchildren, parents to children, older siblings to younger ones. In many families the newly married couple also gives Onakkodi to both sets of parents in their first year of marriage, as a way of saying thank you for the wedding just past. Married daughters who have moved to another home receive Onakkodi from their parents every year, no matter how old they get, because that gift is how the parents keep saying that the daughter is still theirs. It is a small transaction and a very large sentence.

What people usually send

For the women, the Onakkodi is almost always a kasavu saree, ideally from Balaramapuram or Kuthampully, with a border to match the age and taste of the recipient. For the men, a set mundu with a broad kasavu border, sometimes paired with a fine cotton shirt piece. For the children, a small pattu pavada for the girls, and a mundu with a shirt piece for the boys. Some families also add a jar of sweets or a small piece of jewellery, but the cloth is the anchor. If you are in doubt, choose the saree first and the rest will arrange itself.

Sending an Onakkodi from far away

Most of our Onam clients are Malayalis living outside Kerala who cannot make it home for Thiruvonam. For them the Onakkodi has become the thing that goes home in their place. We keep a small service around this at our Onam edit. You choose a piece, we fold it and tie it by hand in a linen wrap, tuck in a jasmine sprig, and write your message on a small card in our own handwriting. There is no invoice in the parcel and no printed card. Only the cloth and your words. It arrives at the door in time for the family to open it on Uthradam and wear it on Thiruvonam morning.

When to place the order

Thiruvonam in 2026 falls on August 26. For an Onakkodi that needs to reach anywhere in India before that morning, we ask for orders by August 20. In Bengaluru we take orders a little later, until August 24. If you are sending abroad, please write to us at the start of Chingam so we can arrange the courier with time to spare. Every order is confirmed personally on WhatsApp with a date and a photograph of the folded parcel before it leaves the studio.

A small note on the card

The words on the Onakkodi card do not need to be long or clever. The line that clients ask us to write most often is the simplest one. For my Amma, from her son. For my daughter, on your first Onam away from home. A short sentence in the family language holds more than a paragraph in English ever will. If you are unsure, write the sentence in Malayalam and let the card speak the tongue of the household. That is what the tradition is really about.