Are our urbanites losing their cultural identity?

Lionel WIJESIRI

Are Sri Lankan urbanites losing their cultural identity because of globalization? As an urbanite myself, I believe, the answer is affirmative to a certain extent. Anyone can perceive this in what we've done to our traditional clothes, traditional architecture, and traditional festivals. In fact, we have long discarded our traditions.

Sweetmeat preparation is a main custom during New Year. Pictures by Saman Sri Wedage

We talk about Sinhala and Tamil New Year these days. April is the month of revelry, the most intoxicating of the 12 months of the year, when average Sri Lankans prepare to celebrate new beginning in harmony with Mother Nature.

It is the season of the Avurudda, the annual New Year celebration by the Sinhala and Tamil people of the island, a great national festival which has persisted in all its traditional glory for no less than 2,000 years. Perhaps one of the remaining authentic folk celebrations in the world, the avuruddha stands as a monument to a people whose lives, to a large extent, still revolve around the grace of Mother Nature and her most domineering subject, the sun.

Festive December

But most of the urbanites have lost the meaning of our New Year festival and the emotions that originate from it. They are losing the things that can identify them as true Sri Lankans.

In the minds of the city-dwellers the real traditional festival was there four months ago.

December in urban Sri Lanka, like in many other Western countries, has become a time to get festive. Shopping malls, restaurants and hotels are all decked out in the baubles and tinsels that mark the Christmas season. A forest of Christmas trees and red Santa costumes lift the spirits of people looking for something to celebrate. Many, especially the urbanite young, are all busy with their parties and festival celebrations.

Cell phones buzz with continuous Merry Christmas messages. It's a sign of the times- urban Sri Lankan people are taking to celebrating Western traditional festivals in droves.

The media join in, building up the festivals through wide coverage. Above all, business people seize the opportunity to promote everything under the sun, adding more sparks and whipping up the celebrations into frenzy of buying, eating and bonhomie. This all leads to criticism from those who say that urbanites in Sri Lanka are neglecting their own traditions by embracing western culture so enthusiastically. Some experts even proposed that laws need to be made for the protection of our traditional festivals. At least, the major festival - our traditional New Year - should be promoted by the State in a more pro-active way and getting the citizens involved, including people in cities.

Different culture

Urbanites may not pursue the Western cultures out of their own will, but their own cultures are put away unconsciously while they are enjoying the fast-food culture brought by Western festivals.

Look around city surroundings. McDonald's, KFC, hamburgers and pizzas flourish in all Sri Lankan cities, big or small, now even in the rural areas. With the progress of urbanization, celebrating our traditional New Year festival is losing popularity in big cities.

Although older citizens still maintain their passion for it, the young are no longer interested As an older urbanite, I still believe, New Year festival is blessed with special cultural meanings and is the symbol of our nation. It's an accumulation of the nation's beliefs, ethics and emotions.

Like a language it serves as an important way for a nation's cultural inheritance, emotional communication and is the core of gathering people together. When we accept the New Year festival, it means, to some extent, an acceptance of that culture. A stronger sense to celebrate that festival voluntarily stands for a deeper acceptance of that culture.

Preserve culture

Children having a time of their life...

Valentine's Day and Mother's Day, for example, are becoming popular in urban Sri Lanka because, seen from the surface, it's a resonance of human nature (the pursuit of love and affection is a human nature); but seen to the core, it's the pursuit and identity to the Western cultures by the young generation. In the present structure of cultural exchanges, Western cultures, especially the U.S. culture, take absolute vantage point. Hollywood, Microsoft, green cards, American English, and so on, all form a strong temptation to young urbanite Sri Lankans.

What I say is not a call for urban Sri Lankan not to eat Western food and not to wear Western suits, but to emphasize that we should absorb all the wonderful things in foreign cultures that can enrich our spiritual and material life, and also keep our distance from the negative aspects. At the same time, we should maintain the Sri Lankan traditional culture and assure its dominance in social life.

Two chief factors enable the popularity of foreign festivals in Sri Lankan cities: Promotion from business people and a reason young people seek to have fun. The energetic young generation are obsessed with the desire to have a good time, to the extent that they celebrate foreign festivals more than Westerners do.

The only way we as urbanites can ensure the continued relevance of our culture is by passing the torch onto our young people. They need to be taught their rich heritage and need to educate future generations so our traditions, beliefs, values and identity will not fade.

There's no problem celebrating Western festivals, as Sri Lankan culture always has room for other cultures. Nevertheless, everything has a limit.

Culture is the root of any nation. Festivals are carriers of the inheritance of a nation's culture. Special attention is given to family reunions and goodwill toward all the people in our traditional New Year festival. This is an important feature of our unique culture. It is not only a reflection of cohesion of the nation but also the fascination of our nation's culture.