Wesak festival in Sri Lanka

Wesak festival in Sri Lanka

Wesak is a wonderful festival, which is celebrated in Sri Lanka in each May of each year. This is a Buddhist festival to rememorize the special three events of the life of lord Buddha, which are birth, attainment and parrinibana.

On this special day, Sri Lankan people prepare lanterns, pandols, and dansal (Freely offering foods, drinks and sweets for people). Besides that, people organize Sil campaigns, Bodhi Poojas, Bakthi Gee (Vesak devotional songs). Along with them, people engage in lot of religious activities. My knowledge is bit limited relating to the religious activities done by pilgrims since I am a catholic.

But, all the time I go around the city and enjoy the Pandols, Lanterns and Dansal. People offer different types of foods such as rice and curry, noodles, ice cream along with the beverages such as coffee, tea, cool drinks, typical drinks and sherbets for free.

We can see these things in each city of the country for Wesak but, you can see this event in a huge scale in Colombo city, Kurunagala, Kandy, Anuradhpura etc. But, I must say that Colombo city gets crowded with lot of vehicles and people who come to the city centre to visit the special Wesak zones with lot of lights and designs. If you go to other cities located in villages, you can taste a typical Sri Lankan dishes for free with the original taste.

At crowded spots, be careful with your purse and other valuable things since there might be pickpocket thieves. Besides that, you should wait in the queue for Dansal as well as to enter to the Wesak zones. But you can enjoy these moments.

My experience,

When I became a young person, I used to go with my friends on this day. Sometimes, we went by jeep or by motor cycles. I must say, that travelling on this day by a motorcycle is bit dangerous since roads are blocked in everywhere even though, it was so fun. When we go on the road, people wave flags besides the road by indicating there Dansal. Then we stop the vehicle and go there. Then they offer drinks, biscuits, and lot more other things. In this kind of places, you do not have to wait lot of time in the queue. But, if you go to eat in place, where they offer rice and curry, fried rice or noodles then you should wait in the queue for a long time.

Normally, we start our journey from one city and we go to the upcountry side, which is the favourite part of our journey. Then we stay one night there and then we head to Colombo to see the decorative Pandols and Wesak zones. Then in the next day we head back home. It is so wonderful. So, if you are in Sri Lanka in this period, then do not forget to enjoy this event.