Onam Pookalam – Photos of Floral Designs

Talk about Onam in Kerala and one of the first images that come to mind is that of the flower bed or floral arrangements known as Pookkalam or Athapookalam. The traditional Ona-pookalam usually consists of ten rings indicating the ten day ritual during the ten day celebrations of Onam which begins on Atham and ends on Thiru Onam in the month of Chingam (August – September). In 2008, Onam is on September 12.

Nowadays many pookkalams concentrate more on the design part and in the process the ten rings are avoided. The pookkalams mainly concentrate on the various cultural aspects of Kerala and on the Onam myth.

Here are pictures of some of the Pookkalams that won first prize in competitions held in Onam 2007 and 2006. The aim is to give an idea of the various modern designs used in pookalam, which is a natural rangoli or kolam. The larger image might not be always of high quality.

Below are photos of pookalams made by various cultural organizations. Click on the images for a larger view.

These above images are from an Athapookalam competition held in Kerala 2005. The first three were prize winners.

This Pookalam image is of Model Engineering College, Thrikkakara.

This Pookkalam image is of Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.

This Pookalam image is of Kerala Kala Samiti in Bhubaneswar.

This pookalam made using rangoli is by a street artist.

This pookalam image belongs to K Satheesh Kumar. Also the six images below.

This image belongs to Jinto's Onam celebrations.

This pookalam is made by a residence association in Kerala.

All the photos are copyrighted to respective owners.