Raksha Bandhan 2019: Beautiful Thali Decoration Ideas For This Auspicious Day

Raksha Bandhan is a celebration of love, trust and bonding between brothers and sisters. The rakhi, or a pious thread that a sister ties on the wrist of her brother is symbolic of her trust in him that he will always be there to protect her. Hence, the term 'Raksha Bandhan'. 'Raksha means protection, while 'bandhan' means knot. This year, in 2019, the festival falls on 15th August.

There several stories and legends associated with this festival, which makes it much more interesting. The most noted ones are those involving Rani Karnavati and Humayun; Draupadi and Lord Krishna. Rani Karnvati had sent a rakhi to the Mughal emperor Humayun when she realised that the Rajputs were unable to fight the invasion of the Sultan of Gujrat. Humayun was touched by the gesture and immediately set out to help her.

When Lord Krishna had killed the evil king Shishupal, his finger was hurt. To stop the flow of blood, Draupadi had torn a strip off her sari and tied it around his finger. Lord Krishna had then said that he would repay the debt of every single strand of the cloth.

RITUALS RELATED TO RAKSHA BANDHAN

For decades around the world, we have instances of the celebration of this bonding between brothers and sisters. To make it even more special, decorations are done with complete enthusiasm in India. Beautiful rakhis are either bought or made. Same goes for the rakhi puja thali. In this article, we have come up with some of our own creative thali decoration ideas for this rakhsha bandhan.

Rakshabandhan thali decoration ideas:

Before decorating a thali, let's first list the number of items that are required to make this thali look beautiful- a rakhi, a roli, grains of rice, an aarti and sweets. Apart from that, there are various items that we can use to decorate different parts of the thali.

Base: The base of the thali is the foundation of the whole design. To cover this base, we can use material such as paper or cloth. Depending upon the budget and requirement, you can choose either of the two. Paper will be easier to handle and quicker to work with. Cloth, on the other hand, will require a little extra effort in cutting to size and pasting. However, cloth will give a more elegant effect. Both, paper and cloth are available in various textures and there are wide array of colours from where you can choose from. Thalis covered with synthetic fabric or wool can be a good idea as it will prevent things from slipping off them.

Sections: Every little thing is meant to go into the thali and must get proper space to fit into. It would be a good idea to mark out the spaces for each one and accordingly, you can do the decoration. You could also make a few sections on the thali to prevent contents from getting mixed with each other and prevent it from looking messy. The idea is to have a clean and manageable thali that does not require constant monitoring.

Final Touches: Having marked out the sections, you can accordingly play with the space. Using materials like small glass pieces, mirror pieces, shells, ribbons, tassels can help add colour to the thali and make it look special too. Using flowers will make it more beautiful and take its look to a whole new level. Their natural vibrant colours and their freshness is bound to fill one's mind with positive thoughts.

Rakshabandhan is an Indian festival and decorating the thali using colorful and flashy items is just what you might want. Make it look colourful, add just the right amount of decoration and try to test the looks of it by placing a lighted diya on the thali. When figuring out thali decoration ideas, testing with a diya will help give an idea of what the thali will eventually look like. Get creative and come up with your very own thali for your brother. Options are endless.