There is a special kind of relationship between the festival of diwali and rangoli. Rangoli is the art of drawing images and figures on the floor and walls of one's home. These images and figures are designed with such a beautiful combination of various colors that they create a magical piece of art. The art of rangoli is also known by some other names such as Alpana and Kolam. It has been a tradition in culturally rich India to draw rangoli on the festivals and other auspicious occasions as it is considered a holy ritual. Diwali is a major festival of India and drawing rangoli on diwali is a part of diwali celebrations.

Diwali Rangoli Decoration
The place of origin of rangoli in India is supposed to be the state of Maharashtra. But the art of rangoli is equally popular all over the country and therefore different styles of rangoli have come into existence. People love to decorate their homes on diwali by drawing rangoli in their courtyards, walls, mandirs (place of worship), entrance of rooms and main entrance of their homes. Diwali is a festival when people clean and decorate their residence and offices in order to invite Lakshmi ji, the Goddess of wealth and prosperity. Diwali is also a festival when people make visits to each other's homes to exchange diwali greetings. So by decorating their homes with colorful rangoli patterns they get a chance to be appraised for lovely decorum and also to impress others with their artistic skills.

Rangoli Decoration Styles
There is Bengali style of making rangoli in which the images of flowers, their petals, trees and creepers are the figures that are mainly drawn.

Another is the South Indian style of designing rangoli in which the geometrical figures such as circles, triangles, squares, ovals and rectangles dominate.

Rangoli Decoration Themes
Drawing rangoli designs is all about your imagination where only sky is the limit. The common rangoli themes are the holy symbols like mangal kalash, leaves of Ashoka tree, om, swastik, a lighted Deepak, shree, lotus and other flowers, creepers, trees, rising sun, moon, stars, chakra, fish, birds, elephants, dancing figures, trident, human figures and geometrical figures such as circles, semi-circles, curves, triangles, squares, ovals and rectangles. The footsteps of Goddess Lakshmi entering into the home are designed at the main entrance of the home or near the place of worship, which indicates the entrance of prosperity in the home.

Rangoli Decoration Ideas
The designs of rangoli are created by a combination of different colors. It could be decorated either by colored powders or by colored pastes such as painting colors.

You can enhance the beauty of your rangoli pattern by adding some decorative pieces to it such as the lighted deepaks, colorful flower petals and leaves, colored rice grains, colorful pulses, and colored sand.

Rangoli patterns could be drawn by paste of rice grains, turmeric paste, vermilion powder, chalk and limewater.