Sri Lanka, the whole country is a fascination for its diversity in religions and cultures. The country becomes a small village during the festival seasons as each and every person is obsessed with celebrations. The upcoming season, the Christmas is so close that the city centres become a mini Europe.
Sri Lanka is well known for its Sinhala Buddhist culture and the majority of the population are Buddhists. But the Christians are all around the country specially the coastal areas, Colombo, Negombo, Puttlam and chilaw the coastal line in North western province. Along with thousands of Christians in the country, those in non – Christians enter the month of December with a great excitement.
The first scenery to be seen at the beginning of the season is the Christmas decors at city centers. The shopping centers, complexes and almost every place takes a look of Christmas decors. Traveling to Sri Lanka during Christmas season is truly a magical experience that you will ever have. The joy and happiness it brings out to the people, the spirit reflected through every street and harmonious melodies of carols and ringing bells echo from the churches premises makes this heavenly island a wonderland and isn’t it exciting to visit here? Every family fills with joy and the smells of the meals preparing in their kitchens spread not only the smell of foods, love is spread all over the space.
Similar to the other countries in the world, Sri Lanka too celebrate the Christmas on 25th December every year and it starts with the Christmas eve of 24th December. People tend to pre-pare for the celebrations before two weeks prior to the day.
A brief history about the beginning of Christmas celebration in Sri Lanka.
The history about Christianity in Sri Lanka runs back to 16th centuries back to the reigns of foreign invasions. During the period of Dutch and British rule in Sri Lanka, people embraced catholism and it mostly spread over the coastal areas and lately it spread throughout the country. From those days onwards, people celebrate Christmas. Catholic churches and cathedrals are established almost every region.
Christmas signifies giving and sharing. Brotherhood is built among people. So the Christians make an opportunity in every Christmas to visit their relations, neighbors and loved ones during Christmas parties. Every home is a Christmas party during this season. They exchange gifts and share happiness with each other wishing them merry Christmas. Christmas is for the entire community of Sri Lanka, so the other communities than the Christians are so excited to celebrate Christmas. Travelling to Sri Lanka during this season is a lot of fun. The joy of Christmas has spread to every corner of the country.
Sri Lanka also received the Guinness World Record for creating ‘world’s tallest artificial Christmas tree’ in 2016, and the preparation starts weeks before the Santa Season comes around. Another interesting fact about Sri Lankan Christmas is that ‘Santa’ is called ‘Naththal Seeya’ and Christmas is also known by a different name ‘Naththala’. The midnight masses are central to celebrating Naththala/ Christmas in Sri Lanka. When the streets dazzle in fairy lights, the firecrackers brighten up the skies to create a tranquil picturesque for the tourists.
Where to travel during Christmas season?
Enjoy the Christmas galas and high teas in Sri Lankan hotels
Colombo is the center for Christmas and hotels become a paradise for delicious Christmas foods. Christmas without cakes is like rain without hues, and the mouth-watering cakes in Colombo certainly can’t be missed. Christmas Cakes though are available in all the cafes and bakeries, but the Cake Factory and Butter Boutique in the capital are the classic centers for people with an incessant sweet-tooth. There are plenty of sweets you can choose from but, whatever recipe followed, Christmas cakes take a big part during Christmas in Sri Lanka.
Hotel offer you high teas, Christmas eve galas and food festivals where you can enjoy the delight of foods. You can book the events approximately two weeks prior to the date because the season is so busy and people are eagerly waiting for such things.
Enjoy the Christmas meals in Sri Lanka
Sri Lankan meals have its own delight. The flavors are bit spicy but different from others. During the Christmas season, sweet meats and snacks become more popular among people. Hotels, restaurants and cafes offer you varieties of sweets. But the main meals take The Sri Lankan look. The dishes are so different and perfect. Christmas meals are mouthwatering that you can even taste them by its looks. Rice is always the center of the number of curry dishes that you can choose from each other. You will surely be so much delighted by the spicy curries like cashew curry, chicken and other meaty dishes, eggplant curry, pickles, salads and other Sri Lankan dishes. When you reserve hotels for your stay, most hotels charge a compulsory christmas and New Years’ eve supplement. In addition, the New Year’s Eve dances in Sri Lanka are something special, so be prepared to party your way into the New Year
Join the midnight prayers at churches
The midnight mass starts at 11:30 PM on 24th of December and involves singing carols, offering prayers to the divine. The Cathedral is an ethereal sight in itself and midnight mass the best way to kick start your Christmas festivities. Almost every church in the cities organize 25th December midnight prayers and anyone can join with them. If you are in Sri Lanka on 25th and if you are a Christian, join a church as per your preference for the prayers.
Churches prepare for Christmas by organizing Carol Services, and groups of people travel around the towns at night visiting homes to sing carols. It is also common for groups to visit orphanages, elders’ homes and hospitals distributing food and gifts during this period in order to promote the concept of goodwill and sharing. In recent times special initiatives have been taken by Churches, media institutions and commercial establishments to organize charity drives to benefit those in need, and the response to these has been overwhelming.
Christmas in beach sides in Sri Lanka
Although it’s tough to live in some countries during the season, Sri Lanka still has the best climate to live specially to travel around. The cold climate is not unbearable in Sri Lanka and coastal areas are the best. Southern parts of the country that aren’t just sublime but also flood with strings of beautiful hotels and fancy boutiques constructed within vast stretches of palms trees. Also, a load of water activities organized on these beaches will give you a Christmas celebration filled with a splendid view. An excellent location for whale watching is the Mirissa Beach located on the Southern Coastline of Sri Lanka. You will spot a variety of aquatic creatures like sperms, dolphins, bryde whale cavorting with the waves that leave all the viewers gasping for more.
Helping the needy
While enjoying the Christmas with your loved ones, do not forget to help the needy people around you. Sri Lanka is always fond of helping each other, during every festive season no matter what the religion is, people tend to help each other by giving them the treats and their needs. Sharing goods and gifts helps to make the strong bonds of friendships and it helps the needy people to make them feel like they have the help of others. The true meaning of Christmas is helping each other.
Travel around
Sri Lanka is always perfect to travel around. So the Christmas season is a good month for foreign tourists to travel and this season is considered the peak of tourist season. The weather is also perfect to travel. The temperature around Colombo is approximately 27 degrees Celsius. When it comes to central highlands of the country, there you have a cold and chilly climate which perfectly matches for foreign tourists. It may be probably like 15 degrees. There is no snow fall and climatic hazards in Sri Lanka and the weather is almost pleasant in every time. But in any case you need to check for weather before you travel in Sri Lanka, just check the weather forecast of website of department of meteorology, Sri Lanka.
Sri Lankan do trips and picnics when they gather so that the city centers become crowded. There are places that you can still visit with no busy surrounding. Specially the central highlands in the country, beach sides, country sides like Sigiriya, Polonnaruwa, Anuradhapura etc. There is a perfect atmosphere for travelers to travel around. So travel more and more !
