Rangoli, also known as kolam or Muggu, is a folk art from India in which patterns are created on the floor in living rooms or courtyards using materials such as colored rice, dry flour, colored sand or flower petals. It is usually made during Diwali, Onam, Pongal and other Indian festivals. They are meant to be sacred welcoming areas for the Hindu deities. The ancient symbols have been passed down through the ages, from each generation to the next, keeping both the art form and the tradition alive. Similar practices are followed in different Indian states: in Tamil Nadu, there is Kolam in Tamil Nadu; Mandana in Rajasthan; Chaookpurna in Chhattisgarh; Alpana in West Bengal; Aripana in Bihar; Chowk pujan in Uttar Pradesh; Muggu in Andhra Pradesh and others.

Heesco, Windsor. Born and raised in Mongolia and now living and working in Melbourne, Heesco is well known for his skill in rendering photo-realistic portraits. They speak to the viewer in a way that the subtext is enjoyable to decipher. Just what is the Blue Lady’s message? The sunglasses might mask the confronting gaze but her body language fills in the gaps. Heesco’s characters often wear traditional jewellery and clothing that remind us of his Mongolian cultural heritage. (Photo by Lou Chamberlin/The Guardian)

These images have been created using a colour scanning electron microscope (SEM) by the award-winning Eye of Science, comprised of snapper Oliver Meckes and biologist Nicole Ottawa. For a decade the pair, based in Reutlingen in the south of Germany, worked with an old SEM they saved from the scrapheap, but for the last five years they have used a £250,000 FEI Quanta Series Field Emission SEM. Oliver said: “Flowers are beautiful in 'normal' view, but when you look closer, some parts get very bizarre and unexpected structures appear – flowers within flowers, worlds within worlds”. Photo: The floret of a Chamomile flower up close and personal. (Photo by Oliver Meckes/Barcroft Media)

A girl sits on her boat at a Bak Angrout dried up pond at the drought-hit Kandal province in Cambodia May 13, 2016. (Photo by Samrang Pring/Reuters)

A couple photograph The Helmsley Building on Park Avenue, lit in honor of the victims of the Nice attacks, in Manhattan, New York, U.S., July 15, 2016. (Photo by Brendan McDermid/Reuters)

Revellers in Blackpool kept the bank holiday party going on May 30, 2018, taking full advantage of the warm weather and long weekend to let rip. The bank holiday booze up continued across Britain with one party-goer managing to accidentally flash her knickers in public. A bank holiday is a public holiday in the United Kingdom and some Commonwealth countries. (Photo by NB Press Ltd/The Sun)

A passenger inter-island ferry Shuttle RoRo 5 is pictured after it was swept ashore at the height of Typhoon Nock-Ten in Mabini, Batangas in the Philippines December 26, 2016. (Photo by Erik De Castro/Reuters)

Lindsey Vonn of USA wins the bronze medal during the FIS World Ski Championships Women's Downhill on February 10, 2019 in Are Sweden. (Photo by Leonhard Foeger/Reuters)