tamil,sinhala new year
Post on 22-Jan-2018
421 Views
Preview:
TRANSCRIPT
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.
top related