Workshops and hands-on
Make a pookalam at Onam
For the ten days of Onam, Kerala lays flower carpets at its doorsteps. Visitors can join in.
Presented by ClearTrust Free for gardeners, florists, travellers and the curious.
What it is
A pookalam is a round carpet of flower petals laid on the ground in front of a home during Onam, Kerala's harvest festival. It begins on Atham day with a small design and grows over ten days to its fullest on Thiruvonam. The tiny white thumba flower is the traditional starting point. Today marigolds, globe amaranth, ixora, hibiscus and chrysanthemum petals fill in the rings of colour. Schools, offices and clubs hold pookalam contests, and many homestays invite guests to help pluck petals and lay the pattern. At Tripunithura, near Kochi, a grand procession on Atham opens the season.
Before you go
- Onam falls in August or September. Check the dates for the year.
- Remove footwear near a pookalam and never step over it.
- Flower prices rise sharply this week. Buy early in the morning.
The flowers you will see
ThumbaiA small white-flowered weed of Indian fields, used in food and medicine
Aztec marigoldThe golden-yellow flower of Mexican altars and Day of the Dead offerings
Globe amaranthA round-flowered annual grown for its lasting, colorful blooms
Scarlet jungleflameA dense evergreen shrub with year-round scarlet flower clustersAlso part of it, and being written: Hibiscus rosa-sinensis.
Read more
More in India
🇮🇳 Mumbai · All yearDadar flower market at dawnMumbai's wholesale flower market beside Dadar station, at its busiest before the city has had breakfast.
🇮🇳 Kolkata · All yearMullick Ghat flower market under Howrah BridgeA crowded riverside flower market on the Hooghly, in the shadow of Howrah Bridge.
🇮🇳 Bengaluru · All yearKR Market flower hallBengaluru's old city market, where the flower floor is best seen from the stairs above.
🇮🇳 Chennai · All yearKoyambedu wholesale flower marketThe flower block of Chennai's vast Koyambedu wholesale complex, busiest before sunrise.
🇮🇳 Madurai · All yearMadurai malli at the Mattuthavani flower marketThe wholesale market that sets the daily price of Madurai malli, the jasmine the city is famous for.
🇮🇳 Delhi · All yearGhazipur phool mandiDelhi's wholesale flower market in the east of the city, where the capital's bouquets and garlands begin.Original text by the Phool desk, written with AI assistance. Background: "Onam" on Wikipedia. Bloom dates move with the weather, and markets and gardens change their hours: check locally before you travel. If we have something wrong, tell us.
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Onam: Jiteshgt, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Scarlet jungleflame: UpstateNYer, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Aztec marigold: HitroMilanese, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Globe amaranth: Photo by David J. Stang, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Thumbai: J.M.Garg, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Kr Market Bengaluru: Pp391, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Dadar Flower Market Mumbai: Swaminathan, CC BY 2.0, source
- Mullick Ghat Flower Market Kolkata: Pradip paswan, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Koyambedu Flower Market Chennai: Sudhamshu Hebbar, CC BY 2.0, source
- Madurai Jasmine Market: எஸ்ஸார், CC BY-SA 3.0, source