History & Culture of My Beautiful Country Sri Lanka
Hi Steemit Community!
Sri Lanka is one of the smallest countries which has a very interesting history and culture compared with other countries. Sri Lanka was previously known as Ceylon before everyone knows it as Sri Lanka. Not only that but also my beautiful country is called “the pearl of the Indian ocean”. Sri Lanka has many cultural values, traditions, customs, and norms. Sri Lanka has been exposed to diverse cultures and many religious influences. It has several ethnic groups such as Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, burghers, etc. Sinhalese are the largest ethnic group and the majority of Sinhalese practice Buddhism. All ethnic groups have different values and believe according to their religion.
Sri Lankan food, music, dancing, festivals, sports, cuisine, temples, architecture, and many visual aspects reflect the culture and the lifestyle of Sri Lankans. Simply Sri Lankan people’s behavior shows what type of culture is being practiced by Sri Lanka. Buddhism flag is the religious icon for Sri Lanka and Ceylon tea, cinnamon and gems are country exports.
I love Sri Lankan culture since it has very interesting traditions, norms when it’s compared with other cultures. Sri Lankan culture becomes very interesting when it comes to the festival season. Sinhala and Tamil new year is the most important cultural festival celebrating in Sri Lanka. Sinhalese and Tamils celebrate this in April.
Sinhala & Tamil New Year Festival in Sri Lanka
During this season everyone including kids and adults prepares to do traditional customs and rituals such as preparation of meals, commencing work, transaction, partaking meals, leave for work according to the auspicious time especially wearing new clothes with new hopes and also everyone light firecrackers at every auspicious time. At night we all light crystal cracking(Nila kuru), radiant wheels ( Bambara chakra), Ahas kuru, firecrackers, and what I love the most during this season is we step into the houses of neighbors, relatives with the hands of homemade food and sweets such as kevum, Kokis, etc.
When it comes to the language of Sri Lanka, Sinhala is the mother tongue that is used by the largest ethnic group called Sinhalese. Most of the Sinhalese speak Sinhala and also English. Tamil is the second language in Sri Lanka.
Dancing in Sri Lanka represents a huge role in Sri Lankan culture. There are various types of dances such as classical dances, Devil dances, folk dances, dance drama, etc. especially the dancing styles like Kandyan dances which are called "Uda Rata Natum", low country dances "pahatharata Natum" and "Sabaragamu dances" have very beautiful body moves. Everyone loves watching and dancing these styles which nicely and proudly represents our Sri Lankan culture.
Traditional Dances of Sri Lanka
The behavior of Sri Lankans and specially the way of thinking, values and believes represent our traditional culture. Sri Lankans are very supportive of each other comparing to other nations. They try to help each other, caring for others, work together as a team and specially think about the quality of their lives. So, Sri Lankans are not task-oriented but relationship-oriented. If you meet a Sri Lankan, you can identify he/her as a Sri Lankan by the behavior of that person.
Sri Lankan food such as rice, milk rice, kottu, hoppers, string hoppers, pittu, roti, Malay achcharu, pol sambal, aluwa, kokis, aggala are some of the favorite foods of Sri Lankans. Especially when it comes to Ceylon tea which plays a major role in Sri Lankan culture.
Buddhism had a significant influence on Sri Lankan architecture and it shows our culture in a very attractive way.
Sri Lanka is a beautiful country that anyone can visit and especially if you experience the Sri Lankan culture you all Will definitely be falling in love with it.
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