Tomorrow (14), Sri Lankans will celebrate the Sinhala and Tamil New Year. The festival marks the beginning of the New Year, as per Sinhalese astrology, when the sun moves from Meena Rashiya (the house of Pisces) to Mesha Rashiya (the house of Aries). It also marks the end of the harvest season and of spring.
The past three Avurudu celebrations have been different experiences, where, in 2019, just after the festivities, we experienced the Easter Sunday bombings, and in 2020, while still reeling from the tragedy we had faced, Avurudu took place amidst a pandemic, and in 2021, things were no better. And now, in 2022, we are faced with an economic crisis and the country in general unrest.
It would seem that for the third year in a row, Sri Lankans will be celebrating Avurudu differently from how they would have liked and hoped.
Considering the state of our nation as we experience price hikes on everyday consumer items, we reached out to a number of vendors who rely on the annual festival to meet their income targets.
We spoke to Lalitha, a Gampaha-based home cook who prepares Avurudu kavili and sells them to certain families in her hometown. She shared that this year she has not received as many orders because many families are not celebrating Avurudu in a grand way and admits that her own prices have risen considerably.
“The reason I have had to raise my prices is because if I continue to sell at my old rates, I will be doing it at a loss. Right now, I am used to buying just a quarter bottle of coconut oil, but to make kavili I need much more. Usually, we reuse the oil for other foods, but for kavili I can’t use used oil, since the oil absorbs the taste of the food. And especially when it comes to making kokis, I absolutely can’t use old oil, as it will taste funny.
“So it is so much more expensive,” she said, also adding: “We buy the quarter bottle at Rs. 180, but the coconut oil bottle is Rs. 700. I can’t imagine buying multiple bottles to make kavili, but I need a lot of oil to prepare it.”
Similarly, speaking to Namal, who has a temporary stall at the Pettah private bus stand, he shared that he usually sells firecrackers to people coming to take the bus. “Avurudu season is when I would make the sales, but this year all the vendors had an understanding that there will be less purchases, so we all restocked almost half less than what we usually would,” he said.
“In 2020, we thought that people might not buy firecrackers, but we bought our full stocks anyway, just in case, and the people ended up buying everything, because last year people had money. But this year we know full well that unless you have young kids for whom you want to provide a good Avurudu, people are not going to buy firecrackers.”
Several other vendors also shared that foods like mung beans and kithul jaggery are particularly hot items during this season, however, with mung beans, especially, being so expensive and people resorting to buying only 100 g for Rs. 40, sales have been severely affected.
Sadly, when speaking to these vendors, the general sentiment was a far cry from being festive, with many of them simply stating that they have accepted their fate and all they can do is hope that things will turn around soon.
