Sri Lanka It's Happening

September 19, 2007

5 Different types of Flowers 2 Coconut Flowers. 2 Pots 1 Pan 4 Yards White Cloth. 1 Bunch of Betel Leaves 3 Lemons 1 Coconut Incense Tumeric camphor Joss Sticks Compass White Sandalwood Handfull of Coins Branch of a Jak Tree Young Coconut Branch (Gok Kola)

Does that sound like a recipe for some weird Dish? Well it's a list of requirements for fixing the first door frame of my new house.

I don't believe in supersitious rituals but the masons and the carpentors involved in the project do. So the door frame is put in place after chanting of verse to invoke blessings of the gods.

What's the chicken for? is it the mason's lunch. Hardly. The chicken is made to go through the door way after it is put in place. There is a belief that if things go wrong there will be drastic consequences to the first person to cross the doorway. That first person happens happens to be the chicken.

Posted by raditha at September 19, 2007 5:19 AM