Kolam by Sudha Balaji

A plank called manai is cleaned well and a traditional kolam with lines and with kaavi border is drawn on both sides  At the centre we can draw a free hand rangoli or Puja room rangoli like Hridaya kamalam or Aishwarya kolam. A simple method of offering Puja at home to Goddess Saraswathi which is celebrated during Navarathri festival.  It is usually performed on the 9th day of the 9-day long festival. The next day on Vijayadasami day which is considered auspicious for beginning any new venture,  children are asked to take the books from Puja and study for some time.     Prepare sandalwood paste, apply on the forehead of the Goddess followed by turmeric powder and kumkum, a traditional method of applying tilak or tilagam for decoration. Offer white flower garland to the Goddess, I make the garland at home,  we can also buy it from a flower vendor.  When we do it ourselves, we get lot of mental satisfaction. White lotus...

    Lotus garland } Thamarai poo malai } for Purattasi Saturday Pooja } Laxmi Puja |  Lotus is one of the most beautiful flowers and is associated with Gods and Goddesses and hence used for Puja decoration.  We invariably find images of Gods seated on Lotus.   The pink lotus is associated with Goddess Lakshmi and white lotus flower with Goddess Saraswathi.  The traditional method of making garland is shown in the photos .   I have added as many images as possible to make it easy for step by step learning , the closest one can get to a video. First we have to prepare the banana fibre called vazhai naaru in Tamil.  Vazhai thandu is the correct word in Tamil.  I do not know the equivalent for thandu - stem is associated with plants and bark is associated with trees -  even though I studied botany I do not remember the exact word that can replace thandu in English.  So let me use the Tamil words as much as possible. The banan...