Sinhala and Hindu New Year Celebrations

by Sumana Saparamadu

The sweet melody of the koha and the fragrance of erabadu mal signal that it's time to usher in a new year, once again. As the entire nation prepares to celebrate the Sinhala and Hindu New Year on April 14, we will examine some of the age-old tradition

and rituals observed during this time, and also find out what auspicious times are all about...

Auspicious times

Sighting of the New Moon

The auspicious time to see the new moon for the coming solar year will be on Thursday, April 19.

Bathing for the old year

This should be done on Thursday, April 12.

Dawn of the New Year

The New Year dawns at 12.21 p.m. on Saturday, April 14.

Punya Kalaya (time for religious activities

The period between 6.05 a.m. on Saturday,April 14 and 6.53 on Saturday, April 14 is deemed to be the Punya Kalaya or Nonagathaya. It is advised to give up all work before 6.05 a.m. on the 14th and engage in religious activities such as visiting the temple.

Lighting the hearth and cooking the first meal

The custom at lighting the hearth falls at the auspicious time of 1.01 p.m. on Saturday, April 14.Lighting the hearth should be done wearing blue clothes and facing the south.

Commencement of work, first transaction and consumption of the first meal

The first meal should be consumed at 2.51 p.m. on Saturday, April 14, wearing blue clothes and facing the South after commencing work and other transactions.

Anointing oil

It is advisable to anoint the nanu on the head at 8.21 a.m. on Sunday, April 15 while standing on Nuga leaves with Imbul leaves hanging over one's head, wearing reddish/yellow clothes.

Leaving home for work

The auspicious time to leave home for work falls at 6.11 a.m. on Thursday, April 19.

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Anointing the head

The rites of the Sinhala New Year festival end with the anointing of the head and the first bath for the New Year. This may be two or three days after New Year's day or the gap may be longer, but never more than a week. A special oil is prepared at the temple.

The astrologer specifies the time and the direction one should face when anointing the head.

Sometimes there is mass anointing at the temple, with the monk anointing the heads of males.

This anointing should be done with the person being anointed standing on the leaves of a specified tree and holding the leaves of another tree above the head.

The leaves to be used are determined by the day on which the anointing is done. Just as there is a special colour for each day of the week, there is also a special tree (see box).

The leaves of the tree special to the day's presiding plant should be held above the head, while standing on the leaves that were held overhead last year. But, if that day was Thursday last year, there is an exception this year. Thursday's tree is the Bo tree. It is a sacrilege to trample Bo leaves. So there will be no leaves underfoot.

The day of the anointing and first bath is different among the Tamils. I quote Prof. Bertram Bastianpillai....

"Early in the morning on New Year's Day Hindus clad in new clothes wend their way to the kovil before any other activity is undertaken. The devotee collects what is termed in Tamil as 'Maruthu Neer or medicinal water.

"This therapeutic liquid is prepared out of a mixture of medicinal herbs with three kinds of flowers, the lotus, the pomegranate and the fragrant flower of the screw pine.

"Those who have brought home the 'Maruthu Neer' will take the bath for the New Year applying some medicinal water on their heads. It is an act of purification and one starts off the New Year in that pure state." - (Daily News, April 13 ,1995).

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Traditional sweetmeats

The milk-rice cooked at the auspicious time specified by the astrologer will be the centre-piece of the table laid out for the first meal of the New Year. In Sinhala homes, the milk-rice is cooked in coconut milk, but in Tamil homes, the milk-rice is sweetened with jaggery and enriched by adding raisins and cadjunuts.

There will also be kevum (oil-cakes) in Sinhala homes and a comb of plantains preferably kolikuttu. The rich yellow of the ripe plantains adds colour to the table.

Other traditional fare include kokis, aasmi, kaludodol, aluva, and veli talapa. Different districts have their special sweetmeats like the peni wallalu in Matale and the naarang kevum in Badulla.

These are little balls the size of naarang, made of coconut boiled in treacle (peni pol), mixed with flour, flavoured with cinnamon and cardomoms, then dipped in batter and deep fried.

The Avurudu table will not be complete without a lamp at one end or at the centre of the table, which will be lit by the head of the household before the family sits down to the meal. In most parts of the island, no fish, meat or eggs are included in the Avurudu breakfast. The first meal is entirely vegetarian.

Now cakes and marshmallows have found their way to the Avurudu Mesay (table) in urban homes.

In very few town houses are sweetmeats made by the mother or the teenage daughters.

Almost all items can be bought in the supermarkets or there are women young and old, who have specialised in the making of certain items viz kevum or aasmi or bibikkan and will take on orders. These items require a special skill in the making.

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The sheaf of betel

The common or garden betel leaf has a very important place during Avurudu (New Year). Avurudu will not be Avurudu without the sheaf of betel. It is a must for the observance of a very important custom - greeting elders and paying one's respect, and also to do 'ganu denu'.

In some parts of the country, children offer betel (bulath denawa) to their parents before sitting down to the first meal. Grown up sons and daughters, married and living away from the parental home will not fail to bring a sheaf or sheaves of betel when they come on their new year visit on New Year's Day or in the next day or two.

Employees will visit their master / employer on New Year's Day or the day after and offer a bulath atha - sheaf of betel. Until about 30/35 years ago, a rolled up tobacco leaf was placed on the sheaf of betel and given to the master. This was called a bulath hurulla.

The tobacco leaf is not used any more. The offering of betel is not only a form of greeting and paying one's respects. That act is also a silent plea for pardon for any wrongs done in the past 12 months.

When two persons or two families have not been on good terms in the past many months, the younger kinsman or colleague or subordinate will visit the elder at New Year and offer a sheaf of betel. With the giving and accepting of the betel, all ill-feelings will be (or should be) erased and wrongs forgiven and forgotten.

A bulath atha is made up of 40 leaves. But today, few offer a full sheaf. What is offered may be 20 leaves or even less. The number of leaves is not important. It is the giving and the accepting that is important!

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How auspicious times are calculated

The European Calendar, or the Gregorian Calendar (so called because it was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII), is the international calendar now followed worldwide.

But, different races, ethnic groups and adherents (supporters) of some religions, have their own calendar and celebrate the beginning of a new year at various times. The Chinese New Year begins sometime in February of the European/Gregorian Calendar.

The Iranians reckon the beginning of the new year from the vernal equinox (March 21) and the beginning of the Jewish new year coincides with the autumnal equinox (Sept. 23). The Muslim year is a lunar year, so New Year's Day varies.

The Sinhala and Hindu New Year begins, as you all know, in mid- April of the European calendar, about three weeks after the vernal equinox. All South and South East Asia, from Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu, India to Laos, will be celebrating the dawn of a new year this Saturday.

Ours is a solar year. When the Sun has made 'a full round of the zodiac one year has ended.' Zodiac as explained in the Oxford Dictionary is "an imaginary area of the sky containing the positions of the Sun, Moon and the main planets, and divided into 12 equal parts named after 12 groups of signs."

These parts are referred to as 'raasi' in astrology. The time the Sun takes to pass through all 12 'raasi', beginning with Aries (Mesha) and ending with Pisces (Meena), marks one year.The old year doesn't end and a new year begin at the stroke of midnight on the last day of the last month of the year, as in the European or Gregorian Calendar.

The time when the Sun leaves Pisces (Meena raasi) and enters Aries (Mesha raasi) to begin another cycle or round of the zodiac, varies from year to year. Astrologers calculate the exact hour and minute when this happens. This transition from Pisces to Aries, is known as 'Sankranti'.

There is a short gap or internal between the time the Sun leaves Pisces (Meena) and enters Aries (Mesha). This gap in time is known as 'Punya Kaala' (Sinhala)and punya Kaalam (Tamil) - which means time for meritorious acts. It is also called 'Nonagatha' - a time of 'no action'.

All work must cease before the nonagatha, food cooked, the fire put out and the hearth cleaned. No activity should be started and no food consumed until the New Year has dawned. Since this is the 'Punya Kala', families will visit the local vihara or kovil to spend the time in prayer and devotion.

There are auspicious times for each activity in the new year, like lighting the fire, having the first meal, making money transactions etc.

In times past, the King's astrologer handed the 'neketh vattoruwa', the list of auspicious times, to the king, and the king's men spread the information. In areas far from the capital, each village or group of villages had their own astrologer to inform the people the auspicious times for the various rites of the New Year festival.

Now the newspapers, television and radio give this information regarding auspicious times, auspicious colours and the direction to face when lighting the hearth etc. (See box). The media gives this information after consulting astrologers.

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Auspicious colours

The auspicious colour is determined by the day on which the New Year begins. Each day has a presiding planet and each planet has its special colour. New Year's Day this year falls on Saturday. The colour for this year is blue. These are the colours special to the planets and therefore to each day. Sun and Moon are regarded as planets in astrology.

Day		colour			Tree
Sunday 		copper			Imbul
Monday		pearl(white)		Woodapple (divul)
Tuesday		red			-
Wednesday	green			neem (kohomba)
Thursday	gold			Bo
Friday		multi colour		karanda
Saturday	black and blue		banyan (nuga)

Courtesy: Subasetha

You may have been curious as to why one colour is considered auspicious one year and another colour in another year. Now you know why.

Let me digress (move away from the topic) a little, to tell you something interesting. Some of you may have heard of the great Indian singer, Lata Mangeskar. She always wears white sarees with a coloured border. It is said that she chooses a saree with a border in the colour special for that day. If it is a Sunday, when she has to give a public recital, she'll wear a saree with a gold border.

In choosing gifts for family members too, some people buy a saree / frock / shirt of the lucky colour for the new year.