Sri Lanka It's Happening

April 15, 2005

So the new year, that most phony of sri lankan events has come to pass - thank god. People living in Europe and the US might this Christmas is commercialized, you aint seen nothing yet.

In this country were pirated tsunami video sold like hot cakes, the Hindu/Sinhala new year is commercialized to the hilt, you can't imagine anything worse. Colombo city is actually made up of 15 small towns, all the town centers are jam packed with people shopping for things they wouldn't buy otherwis.

Driving which is always a hellish experience becomes almost unamginable. Price of everything spirals upwards and they do not always come down after new year. All this festivities while hundreds of thousands tsunami victims are still living in tents, forgotten by everyone, they certainly coule not celebrate the new year in january 1, they are worse of now.

As for the names itself, though it's officially the Hindu/Sinhala new year and sometimes called the Tamil/Sinhala new year. Tamils don't seem to take much interest in it. Pongal and Deepavali are more important holidays for them. Sinhala hard liners on the other hand, would not call it anything but the Sinhala New Year (Avurudu is the name in sinahala)

Posted by raditha at April 15, 2005 4:21 AM