Esala Perahera · Randoli Perahera Festival The Kandy Esala Perahera, the procession of the Tooth Relic, which runs for ten nights from the kap situveema, the planting of a consecrated jackfruit post at each of the four devales of Natha, Vishnu, Kataragama and Pattini.
The name
The same day, written in each of the six scripts this app keeps
- English
- Esala Perahera · Randoli Perahera
- සිංහල
- ඇසළ පෙරහැර
Only the names actually in use are listed. A blank script is not an omission: the day may simply not be kept there, or be kept under a different festival's name.
UTC+5:30
The date of a festival depends on the place: a tithi that ends at dusk in Chennai can still be running at dusk a thousand kilometres west, which moves the day. Sunrise and sunset here are computed for the place above.
When it falls next
Looking for the calendar this day belongs to
This day does not fall again in the next three years at this place. A few days are tied to the solar month rather than to the civil year, so a year can hold two of them or none.
What the day is
The Kandy Esala Perahera, the procession of the Tooth Relic, which runs for ten nights from the kap situveema, the planting of a consecrated jackfruit post at each of the four devales of Natha, Vishnu, Kataragama and Pattini. Five nights of Kumbal Perahera are followed by five of Randoli, each larger than the last, with a hundred caparisoned elephants, the Maligawa tusker carrying the golden casket, whip crackers, fire dancers and the Kandyan drums. It has been kept in something like this form since the eighteenth century and is the largest Buddhist procession anywhere.
- Deity
- Buddha, Natha, Vishnu, Kataragama, Pattini
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
The hour
The rule in words
The Nikini full moon, the last and largest night of the Randoli Perahera; the Diya Kepeema, the water cutting at Getambe on the Mahaweli, follows at dawn.
The fast
No fast is kept. The Poya nights that fall inside the ten are kept with sil as usual.
Where the regions differ
Kandy keeps the great one; Kataragama, Devinuwara and Bellanwila hold their own Esala peraheras in the same season. The Sinhala month names lag the Sanskrit ones by one, so the Kandy perahera begins in Esala and ends on the Nikini full moon. The last night ends at the river: the water is cut with a sword at first light and a pot of the previous year's water poured back into it, and the day perahera goes through Kandy that afternoon.
Every date here is computed from the Sun and Moon for the place entered, by the rule printed beside it. A printed panchangam can differ by a day where an almanac reads a tithi at a different instant, and a family's own custom always comes first. Where the practice genuinely varies, the text says so rather than choosing for you.