HAPPY BDAY DEVIKA!!!!

One of my favourite authors has a bday today!!! Not only is she guest posting about birthday traditions, she's giving away a FREE copy to one lucky poster who comments on her post here! Happy Birthday, Lovely Lady. May you have many more :)

It’s my birthday on June 29^th and my awesome friend has graciously agreed to let me write a guest post about how Sri Lankans traditionally celebrate their birthday. (Being half German and having grown up in Germany, I do only part of what I’m describing here.)

More than 70 % of the Sri Lankans are Buddhist (as am I), and this applies to their way of celebrating, though I am sure the Christians and Hindus share many similarities.

On your birthday, you get up early in the morning with the first light of dawn and prepare ‘milk rice’. For Sri Lankans, making milk rice means using a special sort of rice which is first boiled with lots of water. Then you add freshly made coconut milk in generous quantities and let the whole thing simmer until there’s no more liquid left. It is customary to add cardamom seeds. Some will also add raisins or jaggery for taste. You heap the whole mass onto a large platter and let it cool down and harden a little, before you cut it up into neat squares or diamond shapes.

This milk rice is offered to the temple early in the morning after you’ve had a bath and dressed in only white clothes. Part of the alms’ giving will be used for religious ceremonies and offerings to Lord Buddha, the rest of it will be the monks’ breakfast. So alongside the milk rice, you either offer fruits like bananas (if you sweetened it) or you make a spicy sambol of chopped onions, chili powder and a sprinkle of lime.

In case you don’t offer alms in the morning, you’ll go to the temple in the evening. There you light oil lamps, worship the Bo tree, burn incense sticks, ask for blessings, and maybe donate some money.

If you celebrate with the family – which is sort of inevitable – you’ll make a special lunch or dinner. Fried rice is the chosen meal. For this you’ll boil long-grained rice like Basmati and mix it with Margarine and tempered vegetables like finely chopped carrots, leeks, beans and cabbage. You can add scrambled eggs or small chicken pieces. Some will make a special Biryani dish instead.

In case you live in a traditional household, you’ll prepare sweetmeats of all kinds, made from rice flour and palm honey (treacle) or from ground mung beans, flour and sugar, dipped in batter and deep-fried. As an alternative or in addition to that, you’ll buy a nice icing cake. In my case, it’s almost always just the birthday cake (I LOVE chocolate) that’ll be lit with a candle, cut and fed to the family members and or guests in the afternoon.

As for gifts: Almost everyone in Sri Lanka will buy you clothes for your birthday or any other occasion, whether you’re a woman or a man. Hardly anyone asks whether you want something specific or gets you any other gift unless they know you very well. When you receive your gift, you shouldn’t open it right away, that’s considered impolite. Within the family, though, you’ll sometimes receive the gift early on the birthday so you can wear something new on the special occasion.

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 Some people are destined to meet.

It sure feels that way when Sri Lankan tour guide Sepalika meets Daniel. The mysterious tourist from Ireland steals his way into her heart and makes her question everything her life is built upon. Instant attraction turns to love – but does he feel the same? And what about the secret she’s hiding from him?

Follow the two on their quest for a happy ending amid the beauty and wonders of the tropical island.

 Buy Link: 

http://www.amazon.com/Saved-Sri-Lanka-Interracial-Romance-ebook/dp/B00U5ZY8AI

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