Sinhala and Tamil New Year  or according to astrology the moment the sun, after completing its journey of twelve courses of the zodiac in Pisces and enters Aries to begin a new course, has arrived.

The New Year is the most important among all the traditional cultural festivals in Sri Lanka. The significance of this festival is that both Sinhalese and Tamil Nationalities are represented in the festival.

The New Year begins with the rituals of cooking and partaking of meals, transactions being performed at the same time by everyone. It is at Sinhala and Tamil New year that a large majority of the people in a country take part in a single event at the same time with a single objective. Such a traditional festival doesn’t exist in any part of the world.

By now the Sri Lankan Nation has travelled through various zodiacs for six decades and has reached the end of another journey. The dark experiences of this journey reflect the history of the miserable state the country is confronted with today. What is needed now is to launch a new journey. The moment has come to break loose from the conventional, impotent administration and end the path taken towards destruction, disunity among communities, lack of a definite objective, a debacle of the economy and that aided capitulation to imperialism. Only then the fruitfulness, unity, gratefulness and contentment -the objectives of the New Year could be achieved. The JVP calls upon all masses of this country to resolve to achieve this in this Sinhalese and Tamil New Year.

Somawansa Amarasinghe,

Leader

 Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna

12.04.2008.