Being from a multicultural country like Sri Lanka has its perks, one of which is being able to celebrate several New Years within a given calendar year. The Sinhala and Tamil New Year falls each year in April, usually on the 14th, with the day before also a public holiday, as the last day of […]
Avurudu in the time of Covid-19. It is a harvest festival, agreed. Source, however, is not the only giver of meaning. ‘Avurudu’ or rather the ‘Aluth Avurudda’ has acquired a lot of meaning over centuries of celebration to the point that ‘harvest’ is rarely referenced. Planetary movement and crop cycles notwithstanding ‘Avurudu’ is THE national […]
The Sinhala and Tamil Aluth Avurudda has been one of the most significant annual festivals for both Sinhala and Tamil communities, since time immemorial. Its exact beginning is lost in history but Robert Knox, English trader and sailor, recalls that Aluth Avurudda was a major annual festival of the Sinhalese, celebrated grandly with royal patronage, […]