Special Events

The event usually has as many as 1000 performers. The fearsome kas karayas inaugurate the processions by cracking their whips in the air, while schoolchildren scurry behind, carrying colourful flags. Plenty of noise is contributed by percussion bands, conch shell blowers, stilt-walkers, flautists and drummers, but the real guests of honour are the elephants, visiting from all over the island.

Elephant polo was first played in India as a pastime of the Maharaja’s Harem, around the turn of the 20th century. The first games were played with soccer balls but these were soon replaced with standard polo balls, due to the elephants’ tendency to puncture them. The sticks are made of bamboo and have a standard polo mallet on the end.

The elephants are brought from all over Sri Lanka and are specifically trained for the game. The aim is to hit the ball with a long stick from the top of an elephant into the goal. Three elephants and three players are used per team and each game consists of two seven minute “chukkas” of playing time. Each elephant is accompanied by a mahout, who sits on the elephant’s neck and guides it with the use of his legs, while the player sits on a rough-hewn saddle on the creature’s back. To ensure fair play, the elephants, mahouts and ends are changed at half time.

Once these are done, the partying really begins as families mingle in the streets, homes are thrown open and children are let out to play. The ubiquitous plantain is dished out alongside celebratory feasts of kaung (small oil cake) and kokis (crisp and light sweetmeat, originally from the Netherlands). Aluth Avurudda has become an important national holiday for both the cultures of the Sinhalese Buddhists and the Tamil Hindu Sri Lankans, and is unique as such, as it is not celebrated elsewhere in the world. Indeed wealthy Sri Lankans make it an excuse to come home from wherever they are to make it a long holiday season. Those who can’t handle the heat of the pre-monsoon season in the south escape to the cooler hills and indulge in the expensive pastimes of the elite – such as polo, golf, tennis and motor racing. Understandably, prices for rooms soar in this area, if you can find any that aren’t already booked.

Based on the details of the Canonical gospels, the Crucifixion of Jesus was most likely to have been on a Friday (the day before the Sabbath) (John 19:42). The estimated year of the Crucifixion is AD 33, by two different groups, and originally as AD 34 by Isaac Newton via the differences between the Biblical and Julian calendars and the crescent of the moon. A third method, using a completely different astronomical approach based on a lunar Crucifixion darkness and eclipse model (consistent with Apostle Peter’s reference to a “moon of blood” in Acts 2:20), points to Friday, 3 April AD 33.

Vesak marks the first month of the Buddhist Calendar. This is a day spent in reflective prayer as people cease wordly pursuits and engage themselves in religious activities. Devoted Buddhists pray in temples from dawn until dusk. As the sun sets, devotees partake in processions and return to the temples in the evening to hear monks read stories from sacred texts. Stalls on the roadside distribute free refreshments to passers-by and there are some fantastic mime and street theatre performances, staged on tall platforms near temples in cities and towns throughout the country.

Hundreds of devotees, dressed in their dhotis and ceremonial markings, turn up with huge earthenware vessels on their heads. Constant shouts of “Horo Hara” remind everyone of their presence. The holy ash and camphor inside these pots is carefully emptied out onto the floor outside the temples, for them to roll around in (and to be washed off later). Things get even more colourful towards the end of the two-week festival with the “water-cutting” ceremony, which is enacted after the ritual puja. A holy casket (believed to contain the secret of God’s birth) is dipped in the Manica Ganga sacred river, followed by thousands of pilgrims who submerge themselves – with their arms raised and to the shouts of “Hora Hara”. At about 4am when the river ablutions are complete, the area in front of the main temple is cleared and laboriously covered in a layer of burning tamarind firewood. Hundreds of cleansed pilgrims slowly make their way, barefoot, across the burning ash. No one is burned. In 2008, the fire-walking should be taking place during the early hours of 15 July. While we do our best to source the most accurate dates possible, it’s best to liaise with the local authorities before travelling. Mayurapathy Chariot Festival – Sri Paththirakaali Amman Temple, Colombo. The chariot festival of the Mayurapathy Sri Paththirakaali Amman temple is held in Colombo every year. The Hindu procession starts in the morning from the temple and continues all day.