How to make lotus flower garland

Lotus garland } Thamarai poo malai } for Purattasi Saturday Pooja } Laxmi Puja |

Lotus is one of the most beautiful flowers and is associated with Gods and Goddesses and hence used for Puja decoration. We invariably find images of Gods seated on Lotus.

The pink lotus is associated with Goddess Lakshmi and white lotus flower with Goddess Saraswathi. The traditional method of making garland is shown in the photos above.

I have added as many images as possible to make it easy for step by step learning , the closest one can get to a video.

First we have to prepare the banana fibre called vazhai naaru in Tamil. Vazhai thandu is the correct word in Tamil. I do not know the equivalent for thandu - stem is associated with plants and bark is associated with trees - even though I studied botany I do not remember the exact word that can replace thandu in English. So let me use the Tamil words as much as possible.

The banana fibre is soaked in water for a few minutes
Then squeeze out the water from the fibre
Remove the inner layer of the fibre and keep it aside
The outer layer is used to tie the flowers
Since we use a needle take out a thin fibre to the entire length, it comes quite easily
Using the needle split this thin fibre into two and make a thinner fibre
Use this fibre as thread and insert it in the eye of the needle
Open the petals of the flower. This is done gently
Some use the palm against the top of the flower to open out the flowers
This method is easy but may damage the petals
So open the petals gently one by one
Remove the stalk of the flower and insert the needle through the base and the stamen
Insert as many flowers as required to get the length of the garland required
A simple and easy yet traditional lotus garland made with vazhai naru is ready.