Sinhala and Hindu New Year or Surya Mangalyaya (Solar Festival) is the greatest cultural festival of Sri Lanka.
Giving priority to auspicious rituals and religious activities, preserving the customary traditions, working together with the same purpose at the same moment in the same auspicious time cannot be seen in the cultures of any other country in the world.
Our ancestors who dealt with nature everyday made it even more realistic in the New Year customs. As their descendants, we do not need to be taught again and again about food security, thrift, self-belonging and unity. What requires is, to implement them.
The service rendered by the farmers to produce food for the country in the face of the recent food and economic crisis should be gratefully remembered in this New Year.
The recent past has left us many things to think about. We have not seen such pandemics, economic and social crises in our past. Let us start a new year embraced with new concepts, not to witness them again and not to leave them for the next generation.
The real right of the New Year belongs to our children. It is the duty of all of us to preserve the wonder of the New Year for future generations.
Dinesh Gunawardena (M.P.),
Prime Minister,
Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
On 13th April 2024