Lighting the hearth and preparing milk rice mixed with ghee, juggery etc with the newly harvested paddy takes prominence on New Year. Eating of this milk rice is also done at an auspicious time, followed by partaking of sweetmeats such as kokis, aasmi and athiraha.

Aluth Avurudda, promises miracles!

Charmaine FERNANDO

The transition from Meena (Pisces) to Mesha (Aries) is believed to occur on a day between 12th and 15th April (Bak) which occupies a very special place in the agricultural society. It is the month that new harvest is collected from the paddy fields. Even nature adorns this month with plenty of fruits and flowers filled in trees.

The much awaited spring time has dawned. The fields are alive with the golden harvest of the Maha season. There is an air of sudden mirth, in the blue skies and the drizzle, and the environs are alive with an extraordinary allure, of fresh fruits and coloured blossoms in just about every tree.

The Erabadu flower, in its flamboyant splash of iridescent vermilion, has dressed up the town and village alike, in its auspicious Avurudu garb. Yes, finally, the cuckoo has sung his signature tune, loud and clear, to herald in, an era of bounty and prosperity! Let the milk boil over. Let kiributh, kavum, kokis fill our tables.

Let the Rabana catch our heart beat. Let the onchilla swing in our favour. Let kamba edeema have a happy ending is our ardent wish this Avurudu. Once in a 365 day cycle comes this blissful day, when, despite religion, language and ethnic differences, all Sri Lankans, wherever they may be, are brought together, in camaraderie, in the one joyous National Festival, Sinhala and Tamil New Year.

This year is special for many reasons; it holds incomparable significance calling for a proud celebration! Many an aspiration has been fulfilled; many a hope realized. We don’t need to offer betel to astrologers to shed some light as to where Sri Lanka is heading.

The vision is resplendent. The time is ripe for new beginnings; to make miracles happen, again, and again. Let the milk boil over. Let kiributh, kavum, kokis fill our tables.

National festivities

The civil war in the North and East, robbed the valiant soldiers the chance to get home even for the National festivities, every Sri Lankan holds sacred. They had no breather until they wiped the menace off the face of our island.

They did just that, with dedication. Due to their painstaking efforts, today, for the first time since three decades, every soldier and everyone from all four corners of Sri Lanka are brought together as one family despite differences.

All are free to indulge in festivities, with peace in their hearts and joy in their hearths. It’s time to heat up the Rabana, sit around it and play a new raban padha, expressing the sentiments and the pulse beat of an elated nation!

The elections provided the added joy of a longer holiday period extending from 8th to the 18th instant. Those who returned home, to their villages from the hustle and bustle of suburban working life, will have ample time to unwind and take in the freshness that is emerald green and azure blue, in an atmosphere of woods and the everglade, hills and dales, waterfalls and flowing rivers that is abundant in our villages. It is quite another amazing world which we dearly miss in town.

With the Aluth Avurudu traditional observances and games acted upon, in keeping with the age old customs, the villages will be a riot of colour and a hive of activity. Come join in.

In the village, living comes first; life moves slow and easy, like the bullock cart but it has its amazing soothing effect on one’s nerves. Against the rush and deadlines of a fast-moving working lifestyle in the town, one is made to wonder whether it is worth the sacrifice, leaving the riches of nature behind, for the sake of harvesting paper cash?

If only job avenues were created in the village, there would be no reason to leave the home for greener pastures in a town or overseas. But alas, the festivities synonymous with the Aluth Avurudda will not let one idle long enough to ponder upon such ideologies.

Town dwellers

It’s a month that moves the town dwellers to the village. It’s the time of year that brings the villages to life. It’s a time of reunion. The villagers see the change, in their kith and kin that have changed wholesale. They look, walk and talk different, now. Most often the change is not a pleasant.

The timid village girl has grown up to become a bold and outspoken young woman, too crude and harsh, turned bitter as a result of undue harassment at work or ragging at the university. The sighs of a village mother will not gel well with the dreams in the eyes of their sons and daughters. Lifestyles are changing overnight.

Today, Sri Lankans, whether living in the village or town, cannot escape globalization. Will our traditions hold sway in the next twenty years against the currents of change? April or Bak Maha has gone down Sri Lankan history as the month of prosperity.

The April brings the New Year and it brings new hope for good things to come. It’s a time the villagers make the biggest decisions in their lives. When the harvest is in, and the coffers are in full swing, it is time to celebrate many things; among them, the wedding, take centre stage.

That is why April is marked in the village calendar as the wedding month. It is the time of the year the farmer community has time for living a good life away from his field. The villagers buy new clothes; refurbish their homes in their own way. They renew age old traditions, hoping it will entice the modern-thinking educated village youth to be torch bearers, keeping customs alive for generations to come.

April, ushers in its countless blessings! We, Sri Lankans, are in the midst of it all! It is significant that this New Year 2010 holds much promise, since the people have given their unequivocal mandate at the polls, to unfold the blue prints of an amazingly era.

The pearl of the Indian Ocean, is on the threshold of being transformed into, the miracle of the millennium! May the blessings of this New Year kindle enough fire in our soul, to melt our hard hearts and flex our rigid ways, to care, to share, to dare, to stand up for righteousness and the rights of others, with pride, because we are Sri Lankans; a unique breed like no other.

May peace and prosperity live and flourish in your heart and home this Sinhala and Tamil New Year!