HOLIDAYS

I always thought that Aussies were quite uneducated in the field of public holidays. Knowing why we had a day off was never as important as the day off itself. Having eleven days off a year I considered to be enough, albeit only just. Here they take public holidays to a whole new level, a combined total of twenty six. Now these are a mix of Hindu, Tamil, Buddhist and Christian holidays. Regardless of ethnicicity or religion, a day off is still a day off if you want to take it.

First up is Tamil Thai Pongal day. This is a non-religious holiday and has nothing to do with Thailand. Thai is the first month of the Tamil calander and pongol is a food, made up of milk and rice and other spices that are hard to pronounce. It is a ceremony of thanksgiving to nature, the sun and animals.

Next is National Day which, as the name suggests, is the day that Sri Lanka gained independence. This year was the 60th aniversary so it was a big celebration in Colombo with many of the roads closed to monitor who went in and out. It effectively turns Colombo into a circular one way street.

Maha Sivarathri is a Hindu holiday and it's underlying principle is to emphasize the principle of death following birth, night following day and so forth. Usually only a single meal is taken the day before. On the morning they take a ceremonial bath as copious amounts of water are integral to the day.

From Hindu to Muslim, Milad-un-Nabi is the day remembering the birth of the prophet Muhammad. There are no formal ceremonies, just a day of remembering. Another point of note is the fact that each Friday between 12:00pm and 3:30pm is mosque time. As many of the shop owners are Muslim, shops are closed during these hours.

May Day is not religiously orientated, but political. It is a day when the workers rights are espoused by not going to work. Elsewhere this may be a day of demonstrations and banner waving and even violence but here it is quite peaceful, ironically enough.

Ed-Ul-Fitr is another Muslim holiday marking the end of Ramadan. This is the Islamic month of fasting and the end signals big celebrations. As it is with most Aussie holidays, there is lots of food and the like.

Deepavel is the Hindu festival of lights. As the legend goes, it marks the day that Khrishna slew the demon Naralcasura, so we have a bit knees up and people enjoy the freedom from everyday life.

To fill in the blank days between the weekends we have Poya days. This is the time of the full moon and is only celebrated in Sri Lanka. The sale of meat and alcohol is prohibited. However, if you order it the day before, you can consume it on poya. Sometimes the more significant poya days will have a day off prior, this is called day off before poya.

The other big ones, where you get more than one day off, are Christmas, Easter and the Sinhala-Tamil new year. This normally falls in April and goes for about 7-10 days. Generally everyone goes back to their home towns to be with family. Busses stop running and shops are closed with the exception of the large hotels, and shops catering to tourists.

In the event of the Sri Lanka cricket team winning, the government also calls a day off. If they did that in Australia no one would go to work all summer. I hope that I have given a brief and accurate run down of the holidays here. If not feel free to leave a comment if I have misrepresented any, or just leave a comment would be great.