SINHALESE AND HINDU NEW YEAR
IN SRI LANKA

It is 14th of April, in most years, we, Sri Lankans celebrate our New Year in a grand way.  New Year is always falling on April and the New Year will be dawning on 13th or 14th of April. In 2015, the New Year has been dawned on 14th of April, and 13th is known as "Old Year".  This is a very famous Festival in Sri Lanka among Sinhalese, as well as, Tamils. We call it as "Sinhala and Hindu Avurudda" (සිංහල හින්දු අලුත් අවුරුද්ද).  According to the Sinhalese Astrology, New Year begins, when the sun moves from Meena Rashiya (the House of Pisces) to Mesha Rashiya (the House of Aries).  It is also a boundary of the end of the period of Harvesting of Paddy and the end of Spring.   

Generally, elders, as well as children are waiting to the arrival of New Year to start a new life.  People will clean, renovate and paint their houses for the New Year.  Also, they shop for buying new clothes for the whole family and buy new pots and pans to make milk rice (කිරිබත්).  Ladies of the houses will prepare special sweets to celebrate New Year.  Some of them are oil cakes (කැවුම්), kokis (කොකිස්), mun kavum (මුං කැවුම්),  asmi (ආස්මි), aluwa (අලුවා), athirasa (අතිරස).  All these food will make before the dawn of New Year and keep ready to eat at the auspicious time, according to the Sinhalese Almanac (ලිත) or Calendar.  But, they will prepare milk rice (කිරිබත්) only on the auspicious time, according to the Astrology.  There are several auspicious times given in this Alamanac to do several important things for the Sinhalese.  

First of all, we have to finish our house chores, according to the time given in the Sinhalese Calendar. That period will call as "Punya Kaalaya" (පුණ්‍ය කාලය).  At that time, we have to finish all the cooking and other things.  We have to go to the Temple and worship Lord Buddha, offering flowers and lighting oil lamps.  Afterwards, there is another time to start work, which is called as "Wada Alleema" (වැඩ ඇල්ලීම).  At that time, we have to light our fire place (or cooker in the present context, as most of the houses do not have firewood fire places) and start cooking milk rice.  Some people used to boil milk in the middle of the living room and then cook milk rice in new clay pots. When the milk rice is ready, there is another auspicious time to start eating, which is called "Ahara anubhavaya" (ආහාර අනුභවය). There will be a dining table full of milk rice, oil cakes, kokis, mun kavum, asmi, plantains and an oil lamp will be lighting at the middle of the dining table.  Before start eating, the eldest person in the house, most probably grandfather or father, if not mother will feed their children with a bite of milk rice and all the members of the family sit at the table together and start eating milk rice and other sweets.  After eating, they start giving plates full of all these food to their neighbours and visiting their relatives with food and gifts.  Children will offer beetles to the elders and worship them.  The other day, there will be another auspicious event, called as "Ganudenu kireema" (ගනුදෙනු කිරීම).  That means, children are getting money, mostly coins, wrapped by beetles from the elders.  In ancient days, all the villagers are going to headman of the village and they get these coins from him.  Nowadays, even Banks start this procedure and their customers go to their Bankers and deposit some money in their Savings Accounts and then Banks will offer a small gift, such as a mug, bag or an umbrella to their customers, who are coming to the Bank on the auspicious hour to do the money transactions.  There will be another auspicious hour to apply oil on the head and to have a bath.  This oil will be prepared with several kinds of special herbs by elders.  The oil apply will be done by a Buddhist Priest in the temple or by an elderly person in the home or in the village at a special place. Thereafter, another day will be nominated to start going to work.  In olden days, since most of the people are attending to agricultural work, they go to their fields to start cultivation work. But, nowadays, most of the people, who are residing in cities are working in offices, they cannot follow this procedure.  After that the New Year procedures will be over.  But, people will visit their relatives and some celebrate New Year Festivals in their villages during the month of April.  

There are several famous New Year games, which plays during New Year Season.  In the houses, children and adults play with five sea shells, call "Pancha Dameema" (පංච දැමීම), which is a very interesting indoor game.  Children and young girls, too, are riding swings during New Year Season. There are outdoor games, such as Kotta pora (කොට්ට පොර) - two people are fighting with pillows on a cudgel, Kana mutti bindima (කණා මුට්ටි බිඳීම) - a person, covered his eyes will break a pot of water hang on a line with a stick, Scraping coconut (පොල් ගෑම) - this will be done by ladies, Weaving coconut leaves (පොල් අතු විවීම) - this competition, too, will be done by ladies, keeping an eye on the face of an elephant (අලියට ඇහැ තැබීම) - an elephant will be drawn on a board and the person, with his eyes covered will go to the correct place and keep the eye on the elephant's face, Cross Country Running (ගම හරහා දිවීම), Competition of New Year Queen (අවුරුදු කුමාරි තේරීම), Fancy Dress Competition (විකට ඇඳුම් තරඟ) are some of the famous games at the New Year Festival Celebrations.  Some people and children are participating in these events and some are going to see these festivals and have fun with their friends and relations.  

During the New Year all the Sri Lankans are starting work together, eating together and firing crackers on the auspicious hours to announce all the people of these auspicious time.  It is a time to forget all the grudges they had and everyone get together to have fun.  This is a special function among Sri Lankans, which is originating from ancient days.  

HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR FOR ALL THE SRI LANKANS AND EVERYONE IN THE GLOBE!!!