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Story: Sri Lankans

Sri Lankan festivals

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Sri Lankan festivals

Hiranthi Manukulasuriya and Hashira Cooray (centre) participate with other children in Sri Lankan New Year celebrations at Paraparaumu in 1991. The Sinhalese New Year is traditionally celebrated on 14 April with a milk-boiling ceremony. A pot overflowing with milk, which is considered sacred, signifies abundance and prosperity in the year ahead.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library, Dominion Post Collection (PA-Group-00685)

Reference: EP/1991/1026/17

by Mark Coote

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Nancy Swarbrick, Sri Lankans – Community, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/1140/sri-lankan-festivals (accessed 3 June 2026).

Story by Nancy Swarbrick, published 4 March 2009, updated 1 August 2024.