The Sinhalese and Tamil New Year, also known as Aluth Avurudu (Sinhala) and Puthandu (Tamil), is celebrated on April 13 or 14. It is also known as the Sun Festival, a festivities with rituals rooted in indigenous, astrological, Hindu, and Buddhist traditions.

During the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, Sri Lankan Muslims observe the sacred month. Muslims believe that during Ramadan, God revealed the first verses of the Quran, the holy text, to Prophet Mohammed in "The Night of Power" (Laylat-al-Qadr), which fell on one of the nights during the last ten days of Ramadan.

Every Christmas, Derek and I think fondly of the Christmas we spent in Mount Lavinia. We miss the stunning beach we called our local and the delicious egg hoppers we enjoyed at Mount Lavinia Hotel. We also laugh about the creepy Santa— an exclusively Sri Lankan Christmas experience that is unmatched anywhere else.  

A kind person wrote recently to inform Derek and me that we misspelled 'jewellery' on our website. She even recommended tools that we could use to catch typos and spelling errors in the future. The English variation used by Sri Lankans is British English, which was introduced to the island nation when the British invaded and took control of the colony from the Dutch in the late 18th century.