ONAM FLOWERS FOR POOKKALAM

FLOWERS USED FOR MAKING A POOKKALAM          

Pumpkin flowers male and female	Mukkutti flowers	Mukuttippoo	JJawanthi
Kasithumba (multi0colours)	Chendumalli ((Multicolours)	Kolambi (white & yellow)	Chemparathi (multicolour)

 

Naalumani pookkal	Aralippoo Pink variety	Aralipoo, White varuiety	Vadamalli (indigo color)

 

Thechippoo

Cheththippoo

Mandaaram

Pavazhamalli

 

Pichakam/Pichi

Nandiarvallam

Sankhupushpam White

Sankhupushpam Blue

 

Asoka flowers

Nithyakalyani pink

White chemparathi

Double colour chemparathi

 

Sampangi or Rathrani flowers

Til flowers (not sure)

Kanakambaram

Arippoo or konkini poo

 

Champangi, not used for Onam

One more variety of Chembarathy

nikkonna, not available forOnam

Another variety of Chembarathi

 

hile preparing this article, my mind travelled back to the good old days of 1946-47, when we were staying in Cannanore, presently spelt as Kannur. I was a boy of 8 or 9 years. I and my friends in that small colony of 15 houses, got up at 5 O’Clock in the morning and carrying a bamboo basket around the beck, we ran to the other side of the railway tracks to the bushes where the plants bore a variety of flowers fit for a flower decoration, called pookkalam, in front of our houses. After a bath, we started to prepare the pookkalam. Mother kept a small ball of cow-dung in the middle of a circle and planted a pumpkin flower vertically on it. Then, we all placed different flowers around, like the picture given here. All the houses co-operated in completing the circles, exchanging flowers one another.

Our lunch that day is called “Onasadya” and consisted of a variety of dishes. The illustration given here does not include sambar, rasam, payasams, curd, pickles and steamed banana.