Making your own Rangoli

Rangoli is a traditional Indian Art of decorating courtyards and walls of Indian houses, places of worship and sometimes eating places as well. It can be drawn on the floor in front of the entrance of a house to welcome guests.

Rangoli patterns are very popular in India, where every state has its own way of painting Rangoli.

Traditionally Rangolis are painted or created out of coloured sand/rice powder.

A symmetrical Rangoli pattern can be drawn on paper or card and then decorated by children with crumpled tissue paper. You can also use flower petals of different colours such as golden marigolds and bright red roses to add extra dimension to the pattern.

Most of patterns use circles to show the endlessness of time.

The most common Rangoli designs start with  dots which are connected to form lines and other geometrical shapes such as stars, squares, circles, triangles etc. These geometrical patterns must be formed in continuous, unbroken lines.

Rangoli designs are usually taken from nature. Peacocks, swans, mango and flowers are popular.

In special ocasions, like festivals, Rangolis are painted in every house.

Diwali -the festival of lights – is the most popular festival.

Here is one of the Rangoli patterns which I made:

If you want to make your own Rangoli, here is a site from my school to help you with it:

www.briteschool.co.uk/primary/rangoli.htm

Happy drawing!