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Panorama of Festivals
Sri Lankan festivals are an index to the Sri Lankan character, often has it’s origin in the sowing, growing and harvesting of rice fields and have given birth to superb songs and dance. Each festival has its own history but the most colorful of them are linked with the Lord Buddha.
Duruthu
The year opens with the Duruthu festival held at the sighting of the full Moon in January, to celebrate the visit of the Lord Buddha to the ancient city of Kelaniya thousands of years ago.
Today this revered event in the island’s history is commemorated with pageantry Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihara, on the outskirts of Colombo. This historic temple is well worth a visit, in view of its priceless murals depicting Buddhist themes and a golden statue of the Buddha.
Sinhala, Tamil New Year
The traditional New Year of the Sinhalese and Tamils begins in April after
the harvest season. It is an island wide festival, ushering in a spirit of joy
at the harvest in the fields, and hops for the seasons to come. Colorful
ceremonies take place, the highest of which are the bursting of crackers, the
wearing of new cloths and the performance of domestic chores at auspicious
times.
Folk dances and national games bring out the spirit of the festival. Many
old customs are revived: traditional sweetmeats are provided; the Rabana or
circular bass drum is brought out in the village homes and women gather round by
the score to tap out old rhythms. An atmosphere of fun, tinged by ceremonies
like the lighting of the hearth or the anointing with oil, pervades the whole
island. Children, grandchildren and relatives gather at the parental household
or ‘Mul Gedera’ to pay their respects to the elders and enjoy a family reunion
and a family feast. On this day of all days, a nation for hospitality, excels
itself in this time-honoured habit.
Wesak
Wesak commemorates the Birth, Enlightenment and Passing Away of the Lord
Buddha, during the full Moon in May. It is celebrated on a scale seen nowhere in
the East combining piety with exotic splendour. The temples becomes alive with
vast crowds of devotees, bearing colorful flowers and incense as offerings, and
with white clad pilgrims engaged in the observance of Atasil, the practice of
the eight noble precepts.
Huge, illuminated pandals depicting facets from the life of the Lord Buddha are erected at vantage points in every city and town; puppet shows and open-air theatres draw milling crowds of sightseers throughout the night till the dawn. Myriads of brightly colored paper lanterns in every house transform the towns and villages into a dream world of color and light, symbols as it were, of the enlightened teachings of the Blessed One, who preached a message of peace and Compassion.
Nagadipa
Off the northern cost of Sri Lanka is a very small island known as Nagadipa. On this island, say the ancient chronicles, two kings, Mahodara and Chulodara, fought over the custody of a jewel-studded throne. The Lord Buddha, who became aware of this conflict, descended upon the scene. He preached a message of peace and the worthlessness of material things, seated on the very throne, which was the cause of disagreement.
Today an ancient Temple, beneath which it is said, this throne is enshrined, is the annual venue of pilgrimage. They wait until the monsoon has abated, and then, when the sea is calm, they sail from the mainland to this little island to pay homage to the sublime teacher.
Poson
Poson is a festival of sublime significance to Buddhists, connected with a mountain known as Mihinthale, which falls usually in June.
In 247 B.C. the King of Thambapanni (ancient name of Sri Lanka), Devanampiya Tissa, was out hunting a stag on this mountain, when the animal (a deer), in headlong flight, led him virtually to its peak. There, the king was astounded to see a serene, dignified figure in yellow robes, who beckoned to him. He answered the summons with instinctive awe. This was Mahinda, son of Asoka, Emperor of India, and Sri Lanka’s first Buddhist missionary. He preached the teaching of the Buddha to the king and his people who from that day became adherents of the new faith.
This supreme event in the annals of Buddhism in Sri Lanka is still commemorated, as it has been for thousands of years, by annual pilgrimage s in June to the top of forest covered Mihinthale. Clothed in spotless white garments the pilgrims offer fragrant blossoms of frangipani and the lotus at a Dagaba built by King Devanampiya Tissa on the summit of the mountain. They walk in slow, reverential columns, past a simple rock cave perched on a dizzy height, dropping hundreds of feet, and commanding a fantastic view of nature in all its colossal grandeur. This was the cave from which Mahinda, seated or sleeping on a bed of stone, viewed the immensity of nature and pondered on the mysterious of the absolute.
Kandy Perahera
One of the most magnificent torchlight spectacles anywhere in the world is the Kandy Esala Perahera, steeped in rituals and ceremonies several centuries old which pay homage to the Lord Buddha with a procession lasting a fortnight. The procession which increases in pageantry with each successive night, reaches a brilliant climax at the Esala Full Moon in July/August.
As an ancient cannon booms from the Temple of the Tooth and echoes from the surrounding hills, the procession begins. Crackers split the air with the snapping of whips and the long procession of elephants and men begin its traditional journey through the city of Kandy.
Riding proudly on the first elephant is the Temple Registrar who bears in his
hand a scroll which in ancient times had the seal of the King's permission. He
is followed by dancers, drummers and torch bearers. As the flames of the torch
bearers dance in the night winds, the sinewy bodies of the dancers leap to the
rhythm of the famous Kandyan drums. Then come the elephants richly caparisoned
and carrying on their backs proud Kandyan Chief wearing the ceremonial
garb of their ancestors. Among them are the guardians of the four shrines
devoted to the Deities Natha, Mahavishnu, Kataragama and Pattini. These
dignitaries are preceded by the most magnificent elephant of all - the tusker
belonging to the Temple of the Tooth. He strides in slow majestic dignity over a
carpet of white linen, the jeweled trappings on his body sparkling with the
reflection from the torches. He bears on his back, the jeweled casket containing
the Sacred Tooth Relic of the Buddha.
(more
about Perahera and Kandy)
Sri Pada
Few mountains in the world have attracted as many pilgrims as Sri Pada (Sacred Footprint). Situated off Ratnapura, the city of gems, it soars to a height of 7000 feet above sea level. But this great altitude has not deterred millions of Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus and eastern Christians from climbing its dizzy heights to pay their humble homage at a sacred footprint.
According to Buddhists, this footprint is that of the Lord Buddha who visited the peak of the invitation of its guardian deity. To the Christians it is that of St. Thomas, and to the Muslims it is that of the first created man, Adam, spent his exile from the Garden of Eden on this mountain; and to the Hindus it is that of Shiva.
Hallowed by centuries, Sri Pada is a place not only for the pilgrim but for anyone who would like to see nature at its inspiring best; who would like to see the sun emerging from its distant bed of ocean and clouds to literally dance upon the heavens like some flaming god, in an optical illusion famed the world over for its magnificence; a vision of beauty which would challenge the skill of the most sensitive poet.
Kataragama
To the south of Sri Lanka, in the heart of the forest of Kataragama is a shrine devoted to Skanda, the Hindu God of War and consort Valli. The romantic union of this God and Goddess is commemorated annually in July/August with a mighty procession of elephants and Kavadi dancers who bear on their shoulders, the Kavadi or plums of the peacock, a bird sacred to Skanda.
From all parts of the island pilgrims, both Hindu and Buddhist, meet at Kataragama in their thousands, to fulfill their vows to Skanda. The penances they undergo in fulfillment of their vows seen unbelievable to western eyes. Some of the pilgrims have metal skewers thrust through their cheeks or tongues. Others drag carts for miles with ropes, attached to hooks piercing the skin on their backs. The climax of the festival, full of the elaborate Hindu ritual, is on the night of the fire-walking ceremony. On a bed of red-hot embers dusky devotees dance to a tremendous burst of drumming but despite their naked feet they are quite unscathed.
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