✦ FESTIVALS & EVENTS
Perahera processions, Vesak lanterns, New Year customs and nature seasons — month by month.
10 events
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Cultural festival
Island-wide
Sri Lanka’s traditional New Year in mid-April — auspicious times, milk rice, sweets, family visits and village games.
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Buddhist festival
Island-wide, Colombo
The full-moon festival of the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and passing — lanterns, illuminated pandals and free food stalls island-wide.
Buddhist festival
Island-wide
Every full moon is a Poya day — a Buddhist public holiday when temples fill with worshippers dressed in white.
Public holiday
Island-wide
The festival that ends the fasting month of Ramadan — prayers, family visits and festive food in Sri Lanka’s Muslim communities.
Public holiday
Colombo
4 February — Sri Lanka marks independence from British rule (1948) with a national ceremony and flag-raising.
Cultural festival
Colombo, Negombo
25 December — midnight masses, decorated streets in Colombo and Negombo, and the start of the busy south-west beach season.
Hindu festival
Island-wide, Jaffna
The Hindu festival of lights in October or November — oil lamps, sweets and temple pujas.
Hindu festival
Trincomalee, Mannar, Chilaw
The great night of Shiva — night-long prayers at the island’s ancient Shiva temples such as Koneswaram and Ketheeswaram.
Hindu festival
Jaffna, Island-wide
The Tamil harvest festival in mid-January — rice is boiled until it overflows as a thanksgiving to the sun.
Buddhist festival
Mihintale, Anuradhapura
The June full moon that marks the arrival of Buddhism in Sri Lanka — pilgrims in white climb Mihintale and gather in…