Christmas in Sri Lanka, past and present

by Andrew Scott

It is Christmas once again - a season well-known for good cheer and universal festivity.

Though the degree of Christmas festivities changes from place to place and according to one's means, the seasonal cheer and love radiated during Christmas is something universal and perennial throughout the world.

The threats of social upheaval and political turmoil and other social problems in certain countries have not wiped out the enchanting cheer of Christmas that pervades the world during the season.

Sri Lanka too celebrates Christmas today and there is no better time for us to think about the history of Christmas in Sri Lanka and the unique way in which it was celebrated in this country from ancient times.

In Sri Lanka too, like in all other countries, Christmas is joyfully celebrated on December 25 each year. This celebration of the birth of Christ is strongly believed to have been held in Sri Lanka from the time the Portuguese set foot on our shores by mere accident when Lorenco de Almeida, force-landed in the Galle harbour and then at the Colombo harbour on November 15, 1505.

It is said that the Portuguese, having landed in Colombo, erected a small prayer house to thank the Lord who brought them safe from the perils of a rough sea and on December 25 that year Lorenco de Almeida and his men who landed in Sri Lanka celebrated Christmas for the first time on Lankan soil.

However, in contrast to this belief, ancient chronicles mention that there were Christians in Sri Lanka long before the arrival of the Portuguese. The Persian cross found in Anuradhapura in the first century A.D. proves that Christians have been travelling, trading or living in Sri Lanka even during the early Anuradhapura period.

Senarath Paranavithana, the renowned Professor of Archaeology, too has mentioned that there were Christians in India and Sri Lanka from very ancient times. Especially because neighbouring India had Christians from very early times, there is no doubt that they would have had a great impact on Sri Lanka because of the geographic proximity of these two countries and also because of trade and commerce that linked the two countries.

The Mahavamsa records that King Pandukabaya, after his coronation, planned the new capital of Anuradhapura and took care to allocate space for building various places of worship for different religious sects and in doing so set apart space for the building of a chapel for Christians. This proves that there were Christians in Sri Lanka even during those early times.

Baptismal font

The two crosses excavated in the Anuradhapura area in 1913 are identical with the cross at Thomas Mount near Madras, an early Christian centre in India. The decorative baptismal font at the Vavuniya museum too shows that Christians had lived in Anuradhapura during early times.

Thus, there cannot be any doubt that Christmas was celebrated in Sri Lanka from early times dating back to even the Anuradhapura period. However, it can be surmised that the first official Christmas mass in Sri Lanka was held in Colombo on December 25, 1505 by the Portuguese.

King Buvenakabahu VII who ruled Kotte from 1521 to 1550 sent an emissary to Portugal, requesting the King of Portugal to accept and proclaim Prince Dharmapala as the rightful heir to the throne. In addition, the king had requested the King of Portugal to send some missionaries to preach the gospel of Christianity in the kingdom of Kotte.

In response to this appeal the King of Portugal had sent a group of Franciscan missionaries to Kotte. Tradition has it that the Christmas mass was first celebrated on December 25, 1505 in Kotte and that even the royal family of Kotte had participated in it.

It is mentioned that by the sixth century a group of Persian traders settled in Sri Lanka. They were essentially Christian, built a Christian church and even got a Christian priest to officiate in their religious activities.

The well-known voyager, Cosmos, who travelled extensively in the Indian Ocean, mentions many interesting facts about the early Christians in Sri Lanka. Cosmos, a Greek was a trader from Egypt and came to the East for the purpose of travel. Later he retired to the seclusion of a Christian monastery and spent much of his time to write books on a variety of subjects, but specialised on scripture books. His book 'Topographies Christiana' written in the first half of the sixth century gives us very valuable and interesting information regarding Sri Lanka which he describes as "A great emporium of trade in the Indian Ocean".

In his description, he records the existence of a Christian church as well as a Christian community in Sri Lanka in the sixth century. He states: "Even in Taprobane, an island in further India, where the Indian sea is, there is a church with clergy and a body of believers".

He states that this church received the Persian Christian traders who had settled in these shores and mentions that they even had a Christian priest. Referring to the church Cosmos says: "The island has also a church of Persian Christians who have settled there, and a Presbyter who is appointed from Persia and a Deacon and a complete ecclesiastical ritual."

Persian biographers

So there is every reason to believe that from those early times Christmas was celebrated in Sri Lanka. Not only Cosmos, but even earlier Persian biographers who wrote long before him, mentions the existence of this community of Christians who would definitely have celebrated Christmas in a fitting manner.

H. W. Codrington, in his informative book 'A Short History of Ceylon' writes: "The capital (Anuradhapura) was of vast extent. but contained many parks, open spaces and monastic establishments. It possessed a quarter assigned to foreign merchants, in whose hands was most of the trade. About 500 A.D. we read of a Persian Christian colony; a Nestorian cross undoubtedly belonging to this community is to be seen in the Anuradhapura museum. Traders from Egypt, subjects of the Roman Empire, visited the country".

Those Persian Christian traders were strangers to Sri Lanka; there is no doubt that they celebrated Christmas, for the first time in this country in the early sixth century.

These facts suggest that Christmas celebrations were held in Sri Lanka from the distant past, but the mystery remains when exactly the first Christmas celebration in Sri Lanka was held.