Colors of a cultural night

Let me paint a picture for you. It’s an old fashion amphitheater type arena in the middle of the village. It used to be a Threshing floor. The night has stretched as far as it could and covered the whole village under its dark cloak but the lights of copra lit king coconut lamps illuminated the exciting faces and the colorful vicinity. Yes, you will realize that this would be the true meaning of the phrase ‘vivid and colorful’. The entire village is here. Even the reverend monk of the village came. Many of the village people are in traditional festive attires. The government officials that work with the village and the police officers also came to see the special night about to unveil.

The vicinity is crowded with both spectators and participants of the night. Participants are in bright colorful attire and that would remind you a Sinhala-Tamil New Year celebration you see in television. There is a special panel of elders too. They are the old wise people of the village and they are set to bequeath their knowledge in culture and traditional ways to the next generations gathered around.

“Gathering the village for a meeting is not an easy task. It’s not that people are lethargic or reluctant to participate but we all have our day jobs. Even we have plans for the weekends or holidays. But we, people in Weligalla have won that problem in a creative way. We started this cultural program call “Kamatha” with the participation of the whole village.”

Mr. Mahinda Lal is the Grama Sewa officer of Weligalla. He was explaining to us how a unique solution for an issue branched out to be an amazing cultural event.

“This is simply a cultural event that presents both entertainment and knowledge with our traditions and cultural heritage. There is dancing, poem reading and dramatic acts to entertain people. And the elders of the village would introduce the traditional equipment of our agriculture heritage and describe the purpose and use of those. Most kids haven’t even seen this equipment today.  Even though they are not in use today, there were many traditional agro instruments in some village houses. We brought them all here so the elders who possess the knowledge of them can pass that knowledge to the next generations.”

This isn’t about just rekindling the past or being nostalgic. Those instruments might not be any use with today’s modern methods and equipment but this history and traditions create a cultural identity of people. Knowing our heritage would simply contribute to understand who we are.

“We use this night not only to provide entertainment, to pass the precious knowledge and give a chance to develop or tighten the relationships between people but to pass information as well. We give the crowd some subtle messages through the acts and dances. For an example, there could be a small dramatic act that explains the horrors of drug addiction. And this method is much more useful than just a lecture in a Praja Mandala meeting.”

Our dear Grama Sewa officer has created a momentum that could be an answer for many issues we face today as a society, so I thought.

“Sharing the culture would improve the conviviality and the affability between people. We have proved that through our cultural programs which organized through the Praja Mandala. And most importantly we could communicate information that would take four or five traditional society meetings in one cultural night. I bet that nobody ever had this much interesting and exciting village meetings!”

I could see the excitement of the people of the village as well as the guests. In this night they all are bonded with a sense of a community. They all are enjoying the night as a community.

That is something truly colorful to see…