Rakhi Thali, Type of Rakhis and Make a Rakhi

Rakhi / Raksha Bandhan is celebrated with pomp and gaiety by Hindus in different parts of India. in 2009 Rakhi will be celebrated on 5th August 2009. On the festival of Rakhi/Raksha Bandhan, sisters would conduct an aarti and apply tilak on their brothers' forehead, before tying the Rakhi on their brothers' wrist. All the puja items are beautifully arranged on a plate, which is called puja thali.

The materials commonly placed in the pooja thali may include a diya (earthen lamp) for performing the aarti, sweets, roli (sacred color used for tilak), rice (for Akshat) and Rakhi. The beautifully decorated Rakhi thalis gives an impression of the sister's love and care for her brother.

Types of Rakhi Thali

Floral Thali
Place the puja items including diya, rice and roli and sweetmeat in a bronze or stainless steel thali in which petals of flowers are arranged as the base. You can decorate the puja thali with an assortment of fresh colorful flowers. Either fill the entire thali with the flowers, or decorate them only on the thali's rim. The thali can be decorated by single color flowers also. Instead of an entire flower, make use of only the petals of the flowers, so that the thali looks pretty.

Dry-fruits Thali
Decorate your puja thali for Rakhi with dry fruits like cashew nuts, chestnuts, raisins, cocoa nut, pistachio or almond. One after another, many circles of different dry- fruits can be made in the thali, which gives a colorful look. Another idea is to make an entire base of mixed dry fruits in the thali, and then place the puja items. For the purpose, you may make use of a stainless steel thali.

Roli-Turmeric Thali
Roli-turmeric thali is one of the basic types of puja thalis for Rakha Bandhan. Take a bronze thali. Now, mix roli with turmeric powder, so that it becomes a thin paste. The red and yellow combination of these two would give a traditional look to your pooja thali. Smear the thali with the fresh roli-turmeric paste. After the paste is dried, place the puja items in the thali, including diya, sweetmeat and rice.

Collage Thali
You may make use of different colorful paper cuttings your Rakhi puja thali decoration. Although the thali will wear a look of collage painting, it is definite that it would look unique and catch the immediate attention of your brother. Make use of paper cut outs from a magazine or newspaper, for the purpose. The papers used in such decoration could be plain papers with single color or the printed papers containing some or other pictures on them.

Choco-Toffee Thali
This Rakhi, come up with unique ideas for the puja thali decoration and please your brother, on the auspicious occasion. If you are looking for something out of the ordinary, then go for choco-toffee thali decoration. Divide the area of the thali by drawing lines of chocolates and toffees. In every division, place one puja item. This would look very different from the traditional puja thalis.

Sweets Rakhi Thali
Sweets can be used as decorative items for pooja thali. Either put full pieces of the sweets in a decorative manner in the thali, or put small pieces of sweets by cutting them into different shapes. You can also use a combination of both the ideas. Place the puja items in between the sweets.

Different Types Of Rakhi

Cartoon Rakhi
In such types of Rakhis, the cartoon characters are prominent designs over the Rakhi thread. These characters are generally popular cartons like Micky mouse, Donald duck, Tweety, Mogli, Casper, Shaktiman or any other character popular among the children. These kinds of Rakhis are meant for kids.

Sandalwood Rakhi
These Rakhis are made by using sandalwood pieces in various decorative forms. There may be small animals, flowers or some idols made of sandalwood. Sometimes sandalwood beads are also used to give an ethnic look to the Rakhis. The sweet smell of sandalwood also adds extra freshness to the Rakhi festival.

Musical Rakhi
Musical Rakhis are those which play special kind of music when touched. These consist of sensors which get active and play melodious or surprising music. These Rakhis are also a craze amongst children.

Floral Rakhi
These are the Rakhis which have a touch of ancientness. These Rakhis give a complete traditional look. Use of different colorful small and big flowers makes such Rakhis extremely beautiful. These Rakhis are naturally filled with sweet fragrance.

Zari Rakhi
These Rakhis are made of Zari threads. Apart using the zari as thread, it also uses it in making the central motif of the Rakhi. The zari is generally silver or golden therefore it appears shiny and gives a very royal look.

Resham Rakhi
Resham Rakhis or Reshami Rakhis are those Rakhis which are made by Resham (silk) threads. Such Rakhis are soft in touch and look bright. All kinds of Resham Rakhis, be it a simple Dori or a heavily decorated one, are well-liked by each age-group.

Mouli
A special kind of thread is used in Hindu Dharma rituals, for tying onto the wrists of the participants of any Hindu rites as an auspicious symbol. This special thread is also known as 'Kalava'. This 'Mouli' is also used as Rakhi because of its auspiciousness.

Gold-Siver coated Rakhi
When Rakhis are prepared by using coatings of the precious metals like silver and gold then they automatically give a royal look. At times, these metals are also used in the different shapes like flowers, Indian Gods and Goddesses and even beads while preparing the Rakhis. These Rakhis also have keepsake value.

Shree-Om Rakhi
Rakhis containing the symbols of Hindu Dharma, like the 'Shree' sign, the 'Om' sign and the 'Swastika' signs are also in demand. Such Rakhis leave a religious impression. So, these Rakhis are especially popular among the old people.

Ram Rakhi
Sometimes Rakhis are made of simple silk threads. They are very simple Doris only with no decorations at all. Just a flower made of same thread in the middle of the Dori. .

Beads Rakhi
The Rakhis that have beads embedded into their threads or embedded on top of the Rakhi base in the middle of the Rakhi thread are put into this category. Such Rakhis give a unique tribal appearance.

Currency Note Rakhi
Such Rakhis have different denominations of currency notes like Rupees or Dollars attached to them. These currency notes can be made of plastic or even real. These Rakhis are simply used for fun.

Stones Rakhi
The Rakhis that are made by using the pieces of precious and semi-precious stones like opal, emerald, ruby or topaz are called stone Rakhis. A Rakhi decorated with various kinds of glittering stone pieces looks just marvelous.

How to Make a Rakhi? Make Rakhi at home.

Materials Required

* 1 Silk Thread Reel (color of your choice, preferably red or green)
* 1 Cotton Thread Reel (matching to the silk reel color)
* 1 Toothbrush (an old one)
* Scissors
* Glue
* 10-12 small Artificial Pearls

Method

* Take the silk thread reel and cut its 20-25 pieces, each one around 25 inches long.
* Hold all the pieces in such a way that both of their ends meet each other and then fold the entire bundle of threads at the mid point.
* Take the cotton reel and tie the bundle with the help of cotton thread just 4-5 inches below the mid point.
* Divide the longer portion of the thread bundle into two equal parts.
* Plait both the divided portions separately and tie a small piece of cotton thread at both the ends leaving a margin of 2 inches. Thus the longer portion makes the string part of Rakhi.
* The smaller part of the Rakhi is still in loops because of the fold. Take the scissors and cut the loops right at its center. This will make the central part of the Rakhi.
* Take the toothbrush and comb that central part in all the directions in such a manner that a circle of the tiny threads is prepared.
* Both the ends of the strings must also be brushed. Brushing the threads will make it even softer and give it a feathery look.
* Finally stick the small pearls on the central part of the Rakhi with the help of glue.