Class 47, Malayalam Script Edition. Festivals and traditions — the days, the objects, the rituals and the greetings, in four blocks, in script. ഓണം IS NOT A SINGLE DAY It is a ten-day sequence, each day named, with a shape everyone in Kerala knows. അത്തം — the first day, ten days out. The flower carpet begins. ഉത്രാടം — the eve. The great preparation day. Kerala calls it ഉത്രാടപ്പാച്ചിൽ, the Uthradam rush, and it is a real phenomenon: the markets that day are chaos. തിരുവോണം — the main day. The day Mahabali arrives. THE OBJECTS പൂക്കളം — the flower carpet. It starts as a single ring on അത്തം and grows larger and more elaborate each day until it is fullest on തിരുവോണം. **The carpet is a countdown you can see from the road.** തുമ്പപ്പൂ — the thumba flower. Small, white, humble, growing wild. It is the flower most associated with Onam and the traditional carpet is built around it. There is something in that: not an orchid, not a rose, but a small white weed-flower from the roadside. That is the plant Kerala chose to welcome a king with. ഓണക്കോടി — the new clothes given and worn at Onam. Everyone in the family gets them; giving them is part of the obligation. കാഴ്ചക്കുല — the offering bunch of bananas. ഓണത്തപ്പൻ — the small conical clay figure at the centre of the carpet, representing Mahabali himself. The guest, made present. ഓണസദ്യ — the feast on the banana leaf. THE TWO GREAT PUBLIC SPECTACLES വള്ളംകളി — the boat race. Snake boats with over a hundred rowers in some, moving to a single chanted rhythm on the backwaters. It belongs to a small international family of village team-rowing festivals; the Chinese dragon boat festival is the other great example. Long narrow boats, large synchronised crews, a chant to hold the stroke. Taught by Dr. Reshmi R Nair.