Sri Lankan Culture

Sri Lankan Culture

Sri Lankan New Year The Sinhala and Tamil new year is a very large cultural event in Sri Lanka.The festival is in April. The Festival happens when the sun moves from the Meena Rashiya (House of Pisces) to the Mesha Rashiya (House of Aries). During the New Year festivities both children and adults will often where traditional outfits. Sports Sports plays a very big part in Sri Lankan culture because the society is quite poor. As a result the people had to play with less expensive equipment. Sri Lanka's main sport is Volley Ball. But after the age of Englishmen's Cricket being the popular sport event in Sri Lanka. Every child in Sri Lanka knows how to play cricket, and there are many cricket fields scattered across Sri Lanka for children and adults to play the sport. The biggest pastime of the Sri Lankan population, after cricket, is watching the Sri Lankan National Team playing cricket. It is common for businesses to shut down when very big matches are televised. Music When the Portuguese arrived in the 15th century to Sri Lanka they brought with them cantiga ballads, ukuleles and guitars, along with African slaves, who further diversified the musical roots of the island. These slaves were called kaffrinha, and their dance music was called baila. Traditional Sri Lankan music includes the hypnotic Kandyan drums.