Tamil,Sinhala New Year

14.04.2016

The Tamil New Year follows the vernal equinox and

generally falls on 14 April of the Gregorian year.

14 April marks the first day of the traditional Tamil

calendar and is a public holiday in both Tamil Nadu and

Sri Lanka.

This is the month of April, the first month of the Tamil

solar calendar.

On the eve of April New Year, a tray arranged with three

fruits (mango ,banana and jack fruit), betel leaves and

arcane, gold/silver jewelers, coins/money, flowers and a

mirror is placed.

Usually before the New Year, people stop all the work

and prepare for the New Year.

They try to make everything new for the next year like

cleaning homes, buying new clothes, repairing things etc.

Auspicious time and Astrology play a big role for the

celebrations and the New Year starts for a given

auspicious time by the Astrologers.

The exciting part is that all the people who celebrate this

New Year stop their work by a given time.

As majority of people celebrate New Year, you’ll find

suddenly the country is silent.

Usually shops are closed and even no much vehicles in

the roads.

Even there is no cooking during this period of Old year and New Year.

Then, when the auspicious time comes for the New Year, we start

work by lighting the hearth and boiling milk.

If you visit Sri Lanka during this New Year period, you’ll hear sounds

of lot of fire crackers which indicates that people started the

celebrations.

Usually we prepare a fireplace in mid of the living room and boil milk.

If not, we even use the existing fireplace in the kitchen.

Nowadays most of the homes use gas cookers for cooking purpose.

But still most Sri Lankans prepare a traditional fireplace(hearth) for

the purpose of boiling milk.

If the milk is boiled and overflows, it is a symbol of prosperity and all

are happy. We all stay around the hearth adding dry sticks to continue

the fire and wait for the time of overflowing milk.

After boiling milk, (either coconut milk or fresh milk of cow) then it is time

to cook Milk Rice. Milk rice is a ceremonial dish in Sri Lanka which rice is

cooked with coconut milk. Even the New Year starts with cooking Kiri

bath and eating together the whole family.

Basically this celebration is related with new harvest and idea is family

reunion. After celebrations at home, we usually visit our parents,

grandparents or other relatives. Traditional food plays a big role during

this period and we eat different sweets from different places including

relatives until we fed up.

Some of the most popular sweets during this period are Konda Kavum,

Kokis,Aluwa and Dodol.

Other than these sweets, we also prepare a pickle with onion and green

chili.

As I shared in my other blog, In Sri Lanka we celebrate New Year in April. After the traditional things we do at an auspicious time, it is time to celebrate.

Among other customs and traditions, we also celebrate the New Year with traditional games.

These games are full of fun and simple. During the April and after the New Year (that is after around 13th,14th April) there are lot of such festivals around country.

As for the most of such festivals, this New Year festival also started from the ‘Marathon’.

Usually this includes competitors to complete a track which usually covers the residential area where the games festival is organized.

At least 2-3 km is included for the runners to complete.

Kana mutti bindeema is another fun game which is like a

must in any New year games festival.

Usually for this game, there are few clay pots which are

filled with sand or water and hanged in a row.

Among these pots there is one pot which is filled with

blue water.

Completion is to hit the clay pot which has blue water.

To start the game, the eyes of the competitors are closed

using a piece of cloth.

They are provided with a bamboo stick to hit the pot.

The competitor who hit the pot which contains blue

water will win the game.

Even if there is a winner or no,this game is a fun event

for all those who participate for the festival.

Another game is Kotta pora which means pillow

fight.It is basically, two competitors fight with a pillow

till one person is fallen down.

Usually a place is prepared using a pole placed

horizontally at about 2 m in height.

This can be placed in other vertically placed

poles/columns.

Then 2 competitors sit on both sides and beat each

other using a bag (pillow) full of straw or some light

weight things.

This will continue until one falls off.

Climbing the slippery pole (Lissana gaha nageema) is another

game.

For this game, a very long timber pole is fixed into the ground.

A flag is placed at the top of the pole.(tree)

Then the organizers will apply some slippery thing like grease on

this pole.

The first person who climbs to the top of this slippery tree and

who gets the flag is the winner.

However, this game is played as a team.

Those who participate for the game will repeat their attempt and

remove the grease on each attempt.

Finally one person will be able to get the flag.

Usually the price is a good amount of money and the winner will

share it among all those who participated in the team.

The mythological backdrop of the New Year is probably based on Hindu literature.

The Prince of Peace called Indradeva descends upon the earth to ensure peace and happiness.

He comes in a white carriage wearing on his head a white floral crown seven cubits high.

He first dips, like a returning space capsule plunges, breaking earth's gravity, into a `Kiri Sayura' or sea of milk.

Modern day activities related to the celebration of the traditional New Year is based on auspicious times given by the astrologers.

The New Year celebration therefore can be thought as a complex mix of Indigenous, Astrological, Hindu, and Buddhist traditions.