Sri Lankan New Year

 We love when it comes to the Sinhala Sri Lankan New Year- short just Avurudu-

It is usually celebrated on April 14th when the sun transists from the House of Pisces to the House of Aries. But this year it was in the night of the 13th.

It  marks the end of the harvest and the coming of spring.
 You can feel the locals mood gearing up for the upcoming celebrations by cleaning homes, shopping and making New Year sweetmeats.
You can actually see that all women and men are wearing new dresses new trousers and new shoes, women and kids are loved to be dressesd with  the same clothes on the celebration days. The new year plates of sweets and other goodies are exchanged between neighbours and it is a tradition that the plates should not be returned empty.
                                                                
This is  mung kavum (right) & konda kavum - oil cake (left).
-Mung kavum is made out of  a green lense powder, rice flour, sugar or treacle, kardamon powder and water. For the outside batter it is riceflour, wheat flour, salt, water and tumeric powder.
Konda kavum  is made out of browm sugar, white rice flour, wheat flour, fennel seeds, treacle and water-

Both are deep fried in oil.


Avurudu is a public holiday in Sri Lanka so all the families have enough time to carry out variety of rituals in exact timings, which are determined by astrological calculations - from oillamp lighting to cooking the Kiribath (milk rice). Kiribath is made out of rice and coconut milk, its is always eaten for festives like the first birthday of a child, for weddings or for Avurudu.
With the unmistakable sign of very loud firecrackers everyone knows when the next ritual should be done.






Traditionally the milkrice is cooked on a wooden fire place in a clay pot. For an given time period.






After the important rituals are done, people come out on the street to play games all together.
Often neighbarhoods get together and organise a real game day, with different activities and prices, for the fastest runner, the fastest team who could get a string through a needle, the fastest women rasing a coconut and many more.
We love to join these games and of course to win prices, ones we got a glassbowl set,  and a torch, most of the prices are really useful!  :)

A sinhala new year table done traditionaly with the oil lamp and all the different kind of sweets.

                                                                                                     
















We wish all a happy sinhala new year !