The ten-day celebrations of Onam
start on Atham by putting
Flower Carpet (Arts by
flowers) in front of house. It is also known as Onapookkalam,
Pookkalam and Aththa-Poo'. 'Pookkalam' consists
of two Malayalam words; 'poov' meaning
flower and 'kalam' means colour sketches
on the ground. Pookkalam is extremely popular in Kerala
and is followed as a ritual in every household during
the ten-day-long Onam celebrations to receive the
King Mahabali.
The
traditional Onapookkalam is made out of the gathered
blossoms with many varieties of foliage of differing
tints pinched up into little pieces to serve the decorator's
artistic talent. It is a beautiful work of art accomplished
with a delicate touch and a highly artistic sense
of tone and blending.
Year
by year Onam festival gets more and more popular and
the position and pattern of pookkalam shifted from
front of house to public places and size from one
sq. foot to thousands of sq.feet. Now many organizations,
leading business groups or even religious institutions
are organizing Floral Carpet Competitions and awarding
prizes.
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The Kochi City policemen have come up
with a record breaking Pookkalam,
named Janamaithri pookkalam
and this 12,000 sq.foot
floral carpet was created by 140
police men by 3.5 hours at Rajeev Gandhi Indoor Stadium
, Kochi. It
is said to be the biggest floral carpet made ever.
The officials from the Limca Book of World
Records were also present at the function.
