Saturday, August 25, 2007

Onam: Pookkalams in water

During Onam, children roaming around to collect flowers is a common sight in villages. These blossoms are mainly used for making pookalams, that is, flower arrangements. These pookalams are extremely beautiful and almost everybody has one at their home. Even our local church has pookalam for Onam.

The flower arrangement is done on the ground, either indoors or outside on the muttam (courtyard). I was thinking, why not have them in water. At our Tharavad, apart from pookalams for Onam, for family functions like weddings, we have flower arrangements in water (floral basins).

Two examples are shown below. The first one is in a warppu, a traditional flat bronze cauldron. The second is in a chiseled out granite basin. Third is a detail.





The top picture shows a medley of flowers. The other is hibiscus stuffed with crape jasmine.

Ends.

Photos copyright: KO Isaac. Click on them for enlarged view.

Also see:

Ripples on water

Photos: Vegetables for Onam

Kerala photos: Flowers for Onam

Kerala food: Aviyal, Bhima’s own dish, for Onam

Kerala food: banana aftermath of Onam

Flowers for Onam