Warangal: Bathukamma — or the Festival of Flowers — which will be celebrated on Friday, will have women of all age groups dress up in their best attire, collect wild flowers in vibrant colours and arrange them on a brass plate.
This festival, which is considered a symbol of Telangana’s cultural identity, comes during the latter half of the monsoon and before the onset of winter. The grand ‘Saddula Bathukamma’, which is celebrated after a week, is preceded by a ritual when women make small ‘Bathukammas’, and gather at temples and street corners. They place the Bathukamma at the centre and sing songs, circling the centrepiece, which reflects unity, love and sisterhood.
The district administration is making arrangements for the festival to be celebrated across the tricities at 19 locations. Three temples — the 1000-pillar, Padmakshi and Bhadrakali — will have the maximum number of women congregate.
DRO K. Shobha directed the officials concerned to make proper arrangements for the celebrations, like clearing the grounds and arranging the light and sound systems.
Citizens were buying flowers at the market and from roadside vendors, mostly cassia (thangedu), luffa (bera), celosia (gunugu), nelumbo (thamara), cucurbita (gummadi), marigold (banthi), crossandra (kanakambaram), ixora (ramabanam) and hibiscus (mandhara).
The festival was celebrated at several schools and colleges across the district on Thursday. Government school students made small Bathukammas and sang songs. In Pingle Government College for Women, Hanamkonda, students and faculty members conducted a special programme in observance of the festival. Principal of the college G. Indira said, “Bathukamma glorifies the relationship between earth, water and human beings.”
The flowers immersed in water help purify it.”
