Fullmoon
A small country located just 3 degrees from the equator in the southeast direction of India, Sri Lanka is a beautiful country covered by water from all the sides. Sri Lanka is a small island which is covered from all its sides by the great Indian Ocean.
According to the historians, early in the 6th century BC the Indo-Aryans came and settled in Sri Lanka. The Indo-Aryans who settled in Sri Lanka were mainly Sinhalese and even today, majority people staying in the island are Sinhalese.
Most of the people in sri lanka, follow Buddhism and all their related rituals. Sri lanka, has been known since ancient times as a small agricultural country with rice as the staple diet of the common people of the country. Some of the other very common things that are irrigated by the people in the island other than rice include rubber, tea and coconut.
The island is one of the most beautiful places due to its evergreen beauty. The landscape of sri lanka, is very beautiful mainly due to the erosion and the various faulting that have occurred over the past many years. The country has beautiful mountains covered with grass, huge plateaus, forests and numerous famous and scenic beaches.
The beaches are one of the major tourist attractions on the island. The beautiful sandy beaches with the blue water flowing in and out of the shores are really a very beautiful sight on the beaches. The beauty of these beaches is further highlighted during the full moon nights with the moon shining brightly in the sky throwing its beautiful light on the flowing water of the oceans.
The sand, on beaches sparkles like jewels in the light of the moon during the full moon nights. The waves of the ocean, slowly grows with night falling in and also increasing its noise.
Apart from these beauties, the full moons in Sri Lanka have certain other features also. According to the Buddhist culture, full moons are considered as the most important days in a month. Thus, every full moon day in Sri Lanka is given a public holiday. The full moon days are called as a Poya day. Poya, is a word that has been derived from the Sanskrit and the Pali form of upavas which means as the fast day.
In a complete year, there are total 12 poya days and the “Duruthu” is the first Poya day of the New Year. Based on the size of the moon and its radiance, the full moon day is treated as the most auspicious of all the full moon days based on the lunar phases. Thus the most important religious observances are performed on these full moon days. People go to temples, offer prayers to their god and avoid eating meat and alcohol.
This entry was posted on Saturday, March 21st, 2009 at 5:35 am and is filed under Destination Sri Lanka. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.