Religions and Festivals in Sri Lanka What We Will Learn
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Religions and festivals in Sri Lanka What we will learn, • The four main religions in Sri Lanka • The religious places • The religious festivals There are four main religions: • Buddhism • Hinduism • Christianity • Islam Buddhism isthemostpopularreligion It About 70% of Sri Lankan opleisbuddhist pe Buddhism, we follow the In teachings of Lord Buddha ery month, on full moon, we Ev ve a religious holiday to ha orship. w uddhist people go to the temple to pray and worship. B ll temples have three main places to worship; A The 'Vehera' The bo-Tree The shelter where Lord Buddha statue is. • The three main Religious festivals are, Vesak Festival Poson Festival Asala Festival • They are three of the twelve Full-Moon days of the year. Every month, the day of full moon is called 'Poya Day' • It's a national holiday for buddhists to observe their religion. esak Poya day V is the day when we celebrate It ebirth,enlightmentand th eathofLordBuddha. d 'sabeautifulcelebration, It speciallybecauseofthe e anternsandPandolsthat L ecorateseverycityinSri d anka. L Poson Poya day It is the day when we first got • Buddhism in Sri Lanka. There is a story behind it, and • every decoration on this day is based on this story. Asala Poya day ecelebratethestartofthe W inyseasononthisdayin ra ly. Ju startsbybringingoutthe It Tooth Relic into the streets on ebackofanelephantinan th xtravagantparade. e Hinduism It is the religion of many Tamil people, especially in the north of Sri Lanka. In Hinduism, many gods are followed, and they worship and pray to the gods by serving them different food and fruit. One of their main Gods is God Shiva. • The Hindus worship at Kovil's, which are tall, colorful structures that shows Gods and heaven, where Gods are. • Kovils always smell really sweet of flowers and Incense sticks. neoftheirmainfestivalsis O haipongal,whichisaHarvest T estivalfortheSungod. f heymakeaspecialricedish T with Coconut milk and spices, hichiscookedunderthe w unlight. s ndtheyalsocreate A omethingbeautifulcalled s Kolam'withcoloredrice ' rainsandBetelleavesonthe g loor. f Sinhala and Tamil New Year • Sinhala and Tamil New year is a New Year celebration done by both Buddhists and Hindus in Sri Lanka • Its a long festival starting from 12th of April to 18th of April. • There are so many traditions done in this festival, which are done using a special calender every year. omeofthetraditionsinclude S haring different traditional dishes S fterlighteninganoillamp, a xchanging money with each other e ndapplyingherbaloilsonyourhair. a isatimeofculturalgamesaswell. It isoneofthebiggestandmost It ortant festivals in Sri Lanka, so lets im xperienceitwithalittlevideo. e Christianity sSriLankagotChristianity A om the Colonizers, It is pretty fr uchthesameasitis m verywhere else in the world. e hristiansinSriLankagoto C urch,celebrateallthe ch olidays and festivals. They h avethesamedivisionsaswell. h hereforeallChristians T celebrate Christmas, Easter, ndsoon a Islam lam is one of the most popular religions in the world, so the Is aditions are the same as they are all over the world tr hey follow the teachings of Holy Prophet Muhammad and writings T theQuaran. in heir prayers are done in mosques with a special prayer done on T ridays. F heir most important festivals include Ramazan and Holy Prophet's T ay. d amazancelebratestheendof R astingthatcontinuedonfora f ewweeks,basedonaspecial f alender. c tiscelebratedwithafeastof I oodsharedbetweenfamilies, f ike Biriyani and Watalappan. l However, • the special thing about Sri Lanka is having so many religions and cultures AND sharing them with each other. • For an example, seeing Vesak Decorations, Celebrating Christmas, drawing 'Kolam' and sharing food in Ramazan is common for everyone. • And it is very, very important for us as well. Summary on religions Religions Buddhism Hinduism Christianity Islamism • Lord Buddha's • Different gods; ex, • Same deities and • Holy Prophet Teachings God Shiva. celebrations and Muhammad's • Place: Temple • Place: Kowil writings as they teachings. • Festivals: • Festivals: are in western • Place; Mosque Vesak Poya Thaipongal, countries. • Festivals: day, Poson Diwali, Mahashiva Ramazan, Holy Poya day, Esala rathri. Prophet's Poya day birthday Sinhala and Tamil New Year Questions??.