New Year - A combination of rituals and auspices of custom

Miran Perera

The people of Sri Lanka particularly the Sinhala and Hindu communities join the rest of the people in Asia to celebrate the New Year on April 12th and 13th, yet the Tamil people celebrate another New Year on January 14th as Thai Pongal.

The 'cuckoo' call of the Koha or Koel bird during the harvesting time of the Maha Season of the major rice crop in Sri Lanka reminds that the New Year is approaching. Beautiful Erabodu flowers begin to blossom.

Bounties

The bounties of the farmers are filling. Nature brings the message and people prepare for New Year celebrated all over the country on a grand scale. The Sinhala Aluth Avurudda is the only solar festival of the Sinhalese based on the transition of the Meena Rashi or Pisces to the Mesha Rashi or Aries of the Zodiac and hence it is known as the Suryadeva Mangalle or the festival of the Sun God.

During the New Year, the reverence for ancestral ways, backed by rites and rituals, customs, ceremonies has compelled many from antiquity to adhere to basic principles of morality and to the way of life possessed with good feelings the practice of forethought including the maintenance of social order and the ungrudging cooperation in all matters needed to maintain solidarity peace and prosperity among the community.

Thus this national annual festival in April has made every householder begin a new life with a new outlook in the ensuing year by lulling hatred in fullness of spirit. The New Year observances and festivities begin with the lighting of the hearth at the auspicious time.

The whole family clad in new clothes in the lucky colour eat together the meal also at the auspicious time. They next exchange gifts. The celebrations take a group form when villages get together to play the traditional games.

The women folk participate in indoor games or play 'Raban.' The festival atmosphere tasks for a number of days and during this time they visit relations and friends with Kavum, Kokis and other sweets with various gifts.

Festivities

The festivities end with the anointing of the oil ceremony where at the auspicious time an elder anoints the young with the oil invoking the blessings of God. There are auspicious times to go for work and watch the new moon.

The Aluth Avurudda or New Year is part of our rich cultural heritage which includes among other treasures the historic dagobas, tanks, sculptures, paintings and specimens of ancient literature. Who can be indifferent to the loss of this incomparable legacy?

We must modernise and participate in the emerging world order so as to keep pace with the rest of the international community in science and technology and in the advancement of the general quality of living that it makes possible. However, it would be most unfortunate if we were so foolhardly as to throw overboard the cherished rituals and customs from the past in the name of progress.

Hearth

The principal injunctions to be observed during the New Year are (1) looking at the moon to mark the New Year, (2) bathing to mark the passing year, (3) punya kalaya, (4) lighting of the hearth and eating the usual Kiri Bath also for transacting business and to commence work, (5) anointing the head with Nanu or herbal medicated oil and bathing thereafter (6) leaving home for work in the New Year.

The lighting of the hearth at the auspicious time is strictly followed by housewives irrespective of caste or religion in order to keep the fires burning without a breach as a sign of prosperity. The observance of the injunctions or nekath laid down in the Almanac has now become part and parcel of the festive occasion.

Many people irrespective of their religious feelings observe these injunctions without prejudice since they have become accustomed to observe them traditionally. During ancient times when the Sinhalese led a more leisurely life hearts were fully in the New Year and they really believed in the existence of the Avurudu Kumaraya, the prince of the New Year.

They believed that the avurudu kumaraya comes in a magnificent chariot attired in gorgeous colours. Early people believed that only if one followed the traditional rituals carefully one could get the blessings of the much awaited avurudu kumaraya.

Games

In the old days during the festive season, the rural community constructed swings or onchillas and rotating swings or kathuru onchillas while old women played the drum or rabana where four of them sat to play it.

The ankeliya is a common sport mostly preferred by the young. According to custom and tradition national sports activities during New Year are onchili pedima, kalagedi sellama, olinda keliya, mewara keliya, udekki sellama, leekeli sellama, polgehima, meemesi keliya, kalli gesima, kattu penima, lanupora alleema, mallawapora, alipora, gonpora, rilapeti pedeema, dandugesima, which are common to both males and females.

There are those who believed that the Sinhala and Hindu New Year customs, traditions and rituals are mainly based on Ayurveda system of medicine which has been developed on the principles of Hindu philosophy. The customary bathing for the passing year which includes herbs gives physical purification.

The nonekata is the transitional period in the planetary movement and is believed to be inauspicious to start any work. Therefore this time is set apart by custom for religious observances. For this time Ayurveda envisages a method of treatment known as Daivaapasharaya or spiritual therapy.

Ayurveda explains that the transitional period at different seasonal variations changes an imbalance in the body or forces namely Vata, Pita, Kapa. Therefore, it is advised to have light food or complete fasting during such periods so that minimal fluctuation in the three Dosha will take place.

Therefore during Nonekata it is the custom to be aloof from all normal activities and to confine only to religious observances. From the days of our kings his physicians had to superintend the preparation of the traditional Nanu to anoint the head before the customary bath for purpose of purification in keeping with the induction anticipating good health.

Usually the anointing is done as custom dictates by an aged person who is healthy as the symbolic representation of good health.

In the olden days villagers lived intertwined with nature and were sensitive to slight changes in the environment.

This is why villagers associated the coming of the Koel bird with its welcome Koho, Koho! Sound and blooming Erobodu flowers as a prelude to the Sinhala New Year. The reverence for ancestral ways backed by traditions, customs, rites and rituals has compelled man to adhere to the basic principles of human conduct, the nurture of life including the proper maintenance of the social order and the ungrudging cooperation in all matters needed to maintain peace and prosperity in the coming year.

Many customs and rituals have survived to this day to build good and sound relationships between kith and kin in forgetting displeasures of the past by offering Betel leaves to elders as custom demands to smooth out differences or to lull hatred. Before the commencement of the New Year it is customary for every housewife to give a new look to her old house.

The house is thus, made clean by removing cobwebs, dust and soot. The floor, if not cemented, is given a fresh application of cow dung mixed with earth. Firewood is collected and stocked beforehand, to prepare sweetmeats such as traditional Kevum, Kokis, Athirasa, Aggala, Aluva, Asmi etc. before 3 days to the New Year.

In the community social visits are made and usually a plate of oil cakes, milk rice and plantains are sent from one house to another. Each one according to custom reciprocates by continuing the chain of mutual exchange. Even those who for some reason or other have developed ill-feeling exchange such food.

In keeping with the nature of a New Years renewal man too was required to renew everything possible for the welcome event. Even the humblest of dwellings gets some kind of renovation, new utensils, at least for the kitchen are purchased, new garments are replaced by old ones thus creating an all round new look. To crown all this, there comes the social renewal when people renew their relationships by visiting their relatives and friends.

Even to the solutions of many conflicts are built into the structure of the Sinhala and Tamil New Year celebrations. The strengthening of family units take places in the form of eating together at home according to a set plan created by auspicious times and fortified by rituals which are looked at with respect. The father and mother lead and the children follow.

They exchange gifts paying attention to seniority and these activities release a fund of goodwill and thus strengthen the foundation of family life.