Sri Lanka: The New Year Celebrations

EDITORIAL

We bring New Year greetings for all in Sri Lanka.

(April 14, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) New Year celebrations in any society are celebrations of friendship and expressions of solidarity and times where the human aspect of society comes to the fore. People make the time to greet and talk to each other and look for persons and relatives who they might not have seen for some time. New Year is a time when things of a commercial or political nature or ill will are left behind. It is a celebration by humans of their humanity.

How much of our New Year will reflect these things. Will our hearts go out to those who have suffered in our society during the past year more than any others? Will our thoughts reach those who are in hospitals or those who have mourned for their dead or those who are in positions where the joy of their lives has been lost?

It is the consideration for those who have lost the joy in their lives that should be foremost in the minds of those in this celebration with the idea to find some meaning.

New Year is often seen from the viewpoint of ritual in Sri Lanka. Who created these rituals to make it possible to do the right things at the right time and various habits which are inbuilt into these rituals?

Without any doubt it could be said that the creators of these habits were the Brahmins that introduced their style of ritualism into celebrations. The Brahmin style of celebration has always been ritualistic. It is not about relationships, rebuilding broken links,, building of friendships, love and humanness, but about ritual Only.

The ritual is the means by which mythology enters into the minds of the ordinary citizen. If we did not begin the New Year in this direction or doing this or that particular act it would all be wrong, the Brahmins teach us. Such actions would result in bad effects in the year to come. On the contrary, doing the right thing will bring better luck and this reflects on more greed rather than building attitudes of compassion for citizens towards each other.

While the radio and television use a lot of air time trying to reinforce ethnicity and nationalism, stating that these are our habits because we belong to this particular race, the actual meaning of those rituals are not talked about. Who created the rituals and why the Brahmins dominate our way of thought and life so much?

This is because Sri Lankan society has been a caste based society for centuries. The inequalities and the ways of retaining caste hierarchies and the respects that develops within hierarchies and ultimately retarding the capacity of people to think by introducing rituals and beliefs in all kinds.

Mythologies, spoils our celebrations.

The New Year celebrations have become spoiled by rituals whereas the human spirit, friendship and compassion and the capacity to rebuilt society and rebuilding joy should be the dominating factor behind such these celebrations.

We hope the spirit of friendship, love and compassion will be the characteristic of the coming year and not the continuation of the mindset that the caste based society's past has bequeathed to all communities of Sri Lanka.

The capacity for creativity, for spontaneous joy, spontaneous sadness over the suffering of others, let these be the guiding spirit for the New Year. That is the wish for all from us.