Vishu appeared to have gone global on Wednesday (April 15, 2026).
International Association of Football Federation (FIFA) World Cup’s official Instagram account, in a nod to Kerala’s endearing love for football, surprised Malayalees celebrating the first day of the Malayalam annual calendar by posting an AI-generated image of soccer legend, Lionel Messi, celebrating a goal with a platter of “Vishu Kani” in the foreground.
The Vishu Kani ritual is central to the festival, which brings the hope of auspicious new beginnings and year-long plentifulness to Malayalees across the globe.
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.
The FIFA World Cup page also brightened the propitious day for Keralites by conveying the international sports body’s Vishu Greetings in Malayalam, “Vishu Ashamsakal”.
