Simple Rangoli Design

Sprinkle some bright colors on rice paste and see the magic. Kids are busy with their pastel crayons and poster paints to color their own designs. Professionals are engrossed with the colors on the canvases. It's the season of lights and colors. Red, blue, yellow, and orange are coming your way to make your Diwali more colorful. Rangoli designing is the most prominent activity of the time. It's time to play with colors. Experts explain, rangoli starts with a seed pattern and then builds around it. Practice the art of drawing various geometric patterns to get fabulous rangoli designs. Go on repeating the patterns for better result.

Rangoli designs are made on the floor and the only way to do it is to squat, bend over or sit on the floor. Early in the morning, the women of the home bathe and then indulge in the rangoli ritual. This provides an excellent exercise to the abdominal muscles and arms. More importantly, the process of joining dots and lines is pretty complicated. So, when you make a design, you cannot help but concentrate on the art. This provides a kind of meditative effect early in the morning and purifies the entire body and mind.

It is a wonderful experience to watch the women of all ages sharing their creative ideas to make a rangoli with intricate detailed designs. Rangoli can be best defined as the most appreciated domestic art form. One has to follow few basic steps before making a well designed rangoli. The effect comes from the mixture of white powder and colors. Here we get the meaning of the word "rangoli", "rang" means 'color' and "aavalli" means 'row of colors'. Motifs are generally taken from the world of nature like peacocks, mango, flowers or creepers.

Traditional rangoli has certain important requisites and one of the most important aspects is symmetry. Whatever be the design, symmetry is upheld from all directions in the traditional patterns. The reason behind the use of such symmetry is more spiritual than for visual appeal. Symmetry is indicative of unity, well being, growth, luck and prosperity not just in Indian culture but also in cultures of different countries. Also, symmetry indicates balance of natural elements and promotes calmness of the mind and soul. Another very interesting feature of traditional rangoli designs is the use of rounded shapes rather than sharp ones.

Natural dyes from barks of trees or leaves are widely used for coloring rangoli. Indigo colors also do wonders. Nowadays synthetic dyes are very popular for bright colored rangoli. Every design starts either with lines, dots or simple geometrical designs like squares and circles. It is said that you need not to be an artist for designing rangoli. The talent is passed form one generation to another. Thus, you may not be a professional but you must be gifted with creative ideas.

Rangoli is always drawn on clean surfaces, and very early in the morning. This is the time when the environment is at its purest. In Indian households, doorsteps are swept, washed and these designs are made. The person making the design has to bathe before making it. The whole process is greatly purifying. All these deep concepts which are imbibed in a rangoli bring a lot of positivity, spirituality and a warm ambiance to the home. It is not without reason that you feel welcome when there is a nice design at the doorstep.