Onam PookalamOnam is a festival celebrated in the Kerala (a state of India) . Government of Kerala considers onam as Kerala’s state festival and allocate lot of funds for onam related activities and sports. Along with the onam celebrations of 2008 there will be many onam pookalam competitions in coming weeks (pookalam is an art by flowers). The onam-2008 is on12th September 2008. The Story of onam: The origin of onam is a story connected with a mythical king known as Mahabali. Kerala people believe that, thousands of years before a king called Mahabali ruled kerala. As per the story, when Mahabali was ruling kerala there was no poverty, famine and people never use to lie. Since the king Mahabali's rule was so good, his name spread all over the earth and the heaven. Due to this, the king of heaven Lord Indra got upset. He thought that if Mahabali's name spreads like this, soon he will lose the heaven to Mahabali and King Mahabali would become the king of the heaven. So he prayed to Lord Vishnu for help, to protect the heaven from Mahabali (who is a damon king). Accordingly Lord Vishnu visited King Mahabali in the form of a small Brahmin boy and pushed down him in to a place called Pathalam with his leg.(Pathalam is the world under earth as per Hinduism). However, before pushing down Mahabali in to the pathalam, Lord Vishnu blessed mahabali, and permitted him to visit kerala once in a year as long as the world exists. Kerala people celebrate this day as onam. Onam Pookalam: In Malayalam, meaning of thepoois flower andkalamis drawing or artwork done in front of the house. Therefore, the pookalam is the artwork done by fresh flowers in front of the house. Pookalam is one of the main attractions of onam. It starts 10 days before onam day (called atham) and ends on onam day. There will be a pookalam In front of each house of kerala on onam day. Pookalam competition: As with the other popular events in the world, the pookalam also attracted the attention of business world, as an advertising opportunity. Therefore, in every year many onam pookalam competitions conducted, with the sponsorship of big business establishments. Almost all malayalee associations in different parts of the world including Singapore, USA, UK, Australia and Middle East will be conducting pookalam competition along with their onam celebration. Different teams headed by one or two artists will be competing in these competitions. Rules of Pookalam: The rules of the pookalam will change as per the nature of organization conducting the competition, as some organization may allow displaying sponsor names where as others may not allow it. But there are some common rules to be followed in these competitions.
Onam pookalam in greeting cards: Lot of Online greeting card sites are using pookalam as their theme for onam card. You can find lot of onam cards on below site Free Ecards:- 365greetings.com have lot of onam cards with onam pookalam and kerala background. Flash cards with onam animations are also available. |