New Year - time for amity, unity and tradition

Miran Perera

Each country, each nation has a specific festival that it identifies with its very own and around these festivals those age long traditions are built. To Sri Lankans a Sinhala and Tamil New Year is such a festival.

Historically symbolic of an agricultural community, the New Year is a celebration both of the harvest and of future expectations. In our country, almost every month some festival or other is celebrated.

As Sri Lanka is a meeting place of four world religions: Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity and Islam, most festivals are associated with religion. However, the most widely celebrated festival is the Sinhala and Tamil New Year.

It is not confined to a particular religion. The Sinhala and Hindu New Year customs and traditions are mainly based on the Ayurveda system of medicine which has been developed on the principles of the Hindu philosophy.

Take for example the customary bathing for the passing year. A herbal bath gives physical purification.

When one takes a herbal bath over the entire body anointed with gingerly oil or mustard oil that provides a soothing effect to the body. Herbal baths are prescribed in Vedas too.

Ritual based

The nonagathe is the transitional period in the planetary movement and is believed to be inauspicious to start any work. Naturally this time is set apart for religious observances. Ayurveda envisages a method of treatment known as Spiritual Therapy or Daivavyapasharaya.

This therapy involves the use of Mantras or incantations such as Aushadhi or sacred herbs, mani or precious gems, mangala or propitiatory rites, niyama or vows, Prayaschitta or ceremonial penitence, Upavasa or fasts used as New Year customs.

The Sinhalese celebrate New Year from time immemorial. Robert Knox writes that during his time the New Year was a major festival of the Sinhalese and it was celebrated in March. Festivities similar to our New Year are found in this season in India, Iran, Japan, Myanmar, Thailand, Taiwan and China.

Earlier the New Year was celebrated mainly by the Buddhists and Hindus in our country. Now Christians too participate in the New Year celebrations and in recent times it has become almost a national festival. Yet there are some who want to confine the New Year within a religious spectrum.

There is a view that as the New Year is observed mainly by Buddhists and Hindus and is called the Sinhala and Hindu New Year, but it should be named as the Buddhist and Hindu New Year.

Some scholars are of the view that the New Year is not a Buddhist festival although the Buddhists go to the temple during the Nonagathe time. There is no place for auspicious times in Buddhism. The Buddha has discarded auspicious times saying: The fool who procrastinates what is to be done waiting for an auspicious time will not achieve the objective.

Promoting values

“If you could achieve your objective that itself is auspicious, what could the stars do? Yet the dawn of the New Year is calculated with astrological precision taking planetary influences into account. These set out the traditional pattern of the New Year.

The time the New Year dawns and the period before the New Year is referred to as the Nonagathe when all activities cease and people spend their time in religious observances.

The time for lighting of the hearth is set out and that of partaking the first meal. The Sinhala and Tamil New Year is essentially a period of the family when all anger is forgotten and family ties are strengthened.

It is also the time for the village as a community to get together and enjoy the New Year that has been ushered in. The conventional New Year in January is based on the calendar created by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582. The Gregorian.

Calendar is also known as the Christian Calendar as it uses the birth of Jesus Christ as the commencing date. Accordingly, years prior to that date are identified as BC or Before Christ and those following his birth as AD, (Anno Domini in Latin) meaning ‘in year of our Lord.’ This practice which has become universal was introduced to Sri Lanka during the period of British rule.

Our ancestors calculated the months according to the phases of the moon and named them; Bak, Vesak, Poson, Esala, Nikini, Binara, Vap, Il, Unduvap, Duruthu, Navam and Medin. Bak was considered the first month of the year as it coincided with the passage of the Sun from Pisces to Aries.

The mythological conception concerning the Sinhala Aluth Avurudda more appropriately known as the Hindu New Year or Puduvaruddam is that the prince of Peace or Indradeva alias Sakradeva the God who controls thunder, lightning, wind and rain and the principal God of the Thavathimsa celestial abode who is always in conflict with the Asuras or demons comes down to Earth to ensure peace and happiness for mankind with the dawn of the New Year.

To him is attributed the prosperity during the ensuing year. This peace mission is expected to promote harmony and goodwill and vanquish all fears faced by mankind. So people who believe in the mythical conception of down coming of Indradeva celebrate the festival of the New Year conforming to certain injunctions laid down according to the Uttara Bharat Shastra or North Indian school of thought anticipating health, wealth and prosperity in the New Year.

Hindu New Year customs differ from others. Auspicious times are determined according to the Hindu Panchanga. The New Year customs begin with bathing at the auspicious time after anointing the head with holy water brought from the temple. After performing the ablutions, prayers are said followed by the preparation of Pongal, a kind of sweetened milk rice.

After partaking the New Year meal, the elders give cash gifts to the members of the family. All this takes place within the auspicious period.

Buddhist festivals are held on Poya days based on lunar observances. The New year is also called the Suriya Mangallaya or the festival of the Sun, which is a solar festival commencing with the entry of the Sun to the Zodiac of Aries.

Beyond categorization

The New Year cannot be categorized as a Hindu festival as well. It is a festival of Tamils and some others in South India. The Andhras, Kannadigas and Malayalis though Hindus do not observe it.

Then Hindus in the North India and the Himalayan region have their own dates for the New Year. Also there are some Catholics including clergy who want to celebrate Easter and the New Year together as the theme of renewal found in the New Year are found in Easter vigil ceremonies.

Some see remote similarities between the passover rituals and New Year observances trying to connect the New Year with the passover festival of the Jews.

The customs and traditions of the New Year are important for it is part of our heritage as citizens of a nation.

We should try as much as possible to handover these customs for the future generations to follow. In India, the New Year is called Saka Varsha or the Saka year as it was started during the reign of King Saka and the year 2009 is the Saka year 1931.

The Sinhala Aluth Avurudda or New Year is influenced by Hindu customs of the Sathavahana dynasty of India and it held on a grand scale during the Malabari Kings who ruled the Kandyan Kingdom before 1815.

The solutions to conflict is built into the structure of the Sinhala and Tamil New Year celebrations. Family reunion takes place 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.

Time for reunion

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.

There is now a general consensus among all the communities in Sri Lanka to treat New Year as a national festival though it is intermingled with Buddhist and Hindu religious observances.

It is not fair by the other communities to make it a Christian festival by combining it with Easter.

Since the New Year is not a religious festival confined exclusively to a particular faith it could be a common national festival in Sri Lanka. Catholics too could have a special mass for the New Year and join the celebrations devoid of auspicious times.

It is heartening to see some Catholic churches conduct a special mass for the New Year and Catholics too participating in traditional games and sport. The New Year is an event which all Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and other communities in Sri Lanka could and should celebrate as a common national festival to foster national unity.