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Thali

Next: 13 to 14 Apr 2027

Sinhala and Tamil New Year

Sri Lanka lights the hearth at the auspicious minute and cooks milk rice, then lays a table of sweets.

What is eaten for Sinhala and Tamil New Year

The Sri Lankan New Year falls on 13 or 14 April, when the sun moves from Pisces to Aries. Everything is done at times set by astrologers. The hearth is lit at the given minute and a pot of milk is boiled until it spills over, for plenty. The first meal is kiribath, rice cooked in coconut milk and cut into diamonds, eaten facing the lucky direction. With it is a table of sweets made with rice flour and treacle: deep-fried kavum, crisp kokis, and many more. Plates are carried to neighbours.

The dishes

KiribathCoconut milk rice, the first food of the year.

Also part of it, and being written: Kevum (Deep-fried oil cake of rice flour and treacle.), Kokis (Crisp rosette of rice flour and coconut milk.), Aluwa (Diamond-cut sweet of roasted rice flour.), Lunumiris (Chilli and onion relish eaten with the milk rice.).

About this page

Written by the Thali desk with AI assistance. Background: "Sinhalese New Year" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from family to family and place to place. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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