Dawn of this day, in all households in my village, there will be Kani (something like an auspicious omen to see and start the New Year). Mother prepares kani on the eve of vishu, gets up early in the morning and after herself seeing it first, shows it to all the other members of the family. Kids will be called and slowly taken to the puja (prayer) room where the kani will be ready. Till they see the Kani, mother keeps their eyes closed so that the first thing they see is the Kani.
It was our job as kids to procure mainly two things, Kanikkonna (Golden yellow flower of Casia which is the state flower-picture below) and Kula Manga (unripe mango which are picked in groups) for the Kani. These two things are hard to get especially the day before, so we always make sure to procure it early enough.
As kids the best part of Vishu is lighting fire crackers. Even two days earlier to vishu, there will be huge rush in those fire-works-shops and it was always great to go there and spent all the money we have been given to get the maximum number of crackers:-D. Once we are back, the first thing to do was to divide the crackers equally among us and promising each other that we will not touch others' share. The whole of Vishu eve and the vishu day will be reverberating with the sounds of crackers from all around.
But, in our home and many other homes in the neighbourhood, this was not how kids saw the Kani. Kani would be prepared at home for Amma. Achchan, would take both of us to temple in the night. There would be Utsavam (celebration in temple) coming from Sreekrishna temple at Thrichambaram (1km away) to our temple (supposed to be Lord Subrahmania meeting his father, Lord Siva, who is our Temple diety) and celebrating together. At about 2 am, three of us would go following the Utsavam to the temple and after taking bath from elondhi (temple pond) enjoy the utsavam inside the temple and pray to both of the deities together. Once Lord of Thrichambaram departs, we all sleep inside the temple waiting for next day's Kani in temple.
Achchan would call us in the morning and direct us blind folded till sopanam (the steps that leads to sanctum sanctorum of the temple) and we would wait so that the temple opens with the Kani. After seeing the beautiful temple kani we would rush back to home to light the crackers that are remaining. My bro would be reaching home first given that he could run faster than me.
I always loved reaching home later since I would have most of MY crackers left behind while my bro would have finished his share much before :-D
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