New Year celebrations dull in North

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 April 2010, 07:00 GMT]
The Tamil New Year was observed in a low key in the North as well as in the East of the country. The Vanni uprooted civilians held in Vavuniyaa Sri Lanka Army (SLA) detention camps, not allowed to resettle in their own places despite countless promises and dates announced by the government, had other unfulfilled basic needs in their minds than the arrival of the New Year, according to sources in Vavuniyaa. Meanwhile, Sinhalese Buddhists from the South attended in unprecedented numbers in the religious ceremonies held in Nainaatheevu Naakavikaarai, Aariyaku’lam Naakavikaarai and the newly built Buddhist Vikaarai in Ki’linochchi, sources in Jaffna said.

The recently resettled Vanni uprooted civilians too had nothing to celebrate as their lives were becoming worse than that they had experienced in the detention camps.

The resettled civilians in Jaffna also were observed to be in the same state of mind.

Most of the residents of Jaffna peninsula worshipped quietly in their local temples and kept to their residences without engaging in the merriments that usually mark New Year Day celebrations.

Sinhalese and Muslim traders from the South who had come with the view to make money selling their wares prior to the New Year were seen disappointed as the sales were poor.

Jaffna town, however, teemed with Sinhalese pilgrims who had come to the peninsula to spend their New Year Day.