Marked on the first Poya day in the month of January, Sri Lanka’s New Rice Festival is a national event of no meagre significance. Celebrating the harvesting of the first crop of rice for the year, the festival pays homage to Hindu deities as well as Lord Buddha for bestowing the blessing of a bountiful harvest once more. Known as the ‘Aluth Sahal Mangallaya’ in the local tongue this countrywide festival marks the reaping of the harvest in the Maha Kannaya which is one of the two harvest seasons in the island’s agricultural calendar.
Farmers across the country pluck the fresh batch of rice prior to the festival and thresh and winnow the seeds in preparation for the festival. The full moon Poya holiday marks the beginning of the festival when farmers donate the first yield to the benevolent deities in gratitude for the blessings of a good harvest. In a tradition that dates back centuries the rice and paddy is first offered to the country’s foremost Buddhist institution, the Temple of the Tooth which is also known as the Dalada Maligawa, in which the sacred tooth relic of Lord Buddha, is contained. The rice offered to the temple is kept at Kundasale in Pallekele till the portions of the offering are distributed once more to the Hindu Temples or Devales connected with the Temple of the Tooth. The transportation of the rice paddy to Kundasale is also performed in grand fashion with a procession headed by the Diyawadana Nilame.
At the culmination of the donation of the rice paddy to the Dalada Maligawa farmers around Sri Lanka celebrate harvest time at village level with each hamlet marking the New Rice Festival in its own way. The year 2010 reintroduced the ancient ritual of commemorating the festival as it was done during the 1700’s when the first yield was offered to the Sri Maha Bodhiya in Anuradhapura and was brought over to Kundasale, in a grand parade by the Diyawadana Nilame of the Temple of the Tooth. The state sponsored event took place with the attendance and patronage of the Sri Lankan President in 2010 nearly 30 years after the practice was discontinued.
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