Most important cultural and national festival of Sri Lankan's
The New Year comes in April every year. It’s the Sinhala
New Year festival. Sri Lankans celebrate the New Year on a national scale.
Before the festival farmers harvest their paddy fields and obtain money for the
celebration. The New Year dawns with transition of the Sun from Zodiac sign of Pisces
to Aries. It’s the most important cultural and national festival of Sri
Lankans.
Cuckoo bird heralds the message of the New Year.
Sinhalese people celebrate this festival according to special rituals. The Sinhala
people prepare for this festival one or two weeks before. They do everything in
accordance with the auspicious time. The period known as “Nonagatha” is not favorable
for any activity. When the New Year dawns they light the hearth, prepare the
first meal and partake it. And then they offer sheaves of betel to the elders
and worship. The last ritual is anointing oil on the head.
During the New Year season there are New Year competitions
in the village. The young and the old take part in traditional games such as Tug-of-war,
Pillow Fight, Climbing the Grease Pole and Cycle Races. In some places beauty contests
are held and the most beautiful girl is selected as “Avururdu Kumari”.
The Sinhala New Year is a season of merry making and
happiness.
VESAK FESTIVAL
Buddhists
celebrate this festival in a grand scale. They celebrate it for birth, enlightenment
and passing away of Lord Buddha. The Vesak Festival falls in May every year. It
lasts two or three days. Buddhist people decorate their houses with Buddhist flags
and Vesak lanterns. They illuminate their houses with colored bulbs. They dress
in white clothes and go to temples. They engage in various meritorious
activities in temples. They organize preaching dhamma, Sil campaign and alms
giving on the Vesak Day. Buddhists visit huge lanterns and panadols on that
night.
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