Abstract:
Sri Lanka is rich with various cultural projections, come from different
cultural identities created under a multi-religious environment. Roman
Catholicism is the second main religion in Sri Lanka and its historicity goes
back to Sri Lanka's Portuguese colonial period, according to certified
Archaeological evidence. This research work is aimed to study the
ethnographic background of this proposed tradition of “Roman Catholic
church feast ceremony” and give solutions to the lack of knowledge and
attention driven to this area, by the current Sri Lankan Roman Catholic society.
Questions in the identification of the difference between previous and current
cultural features that conventionally separated from each church, and evidence
that can be substantially and commonly acceptable to certify this proposed
event’s historical timeline goes back to the Portuguese time, were addressed
by this research. This research work was done in a qualitative methodology
with primary and secondary resources such as, books, newspaper articles, e
resources and information collected by exploring in the field, including, some
of the ancient Roman Catholic churches in Sri Lanka. Results of this research
work can be divided into two parts as “revealing the historical environment”
and “explaining the cultural characteristics”. History of this tradition goes
back to the prior British colonial period. Introduce of "Church feast flag
hoisting ceremony by St. Joseph Vaz", and a historical “church feast
ceremony” held at Kandy in the Portuguese colonial time can be considered
as examples for the historicity mentioned earlier in the abstract. And, events
like, “Karaththa Mangalyaya” in the feast of St. Anne’s Church - Kattimahana,
“Oru Mangalyaya” in the feast of St. Anne’s Church - Thalawila and some
different “after feast day or pre-feast day Suruwam Perahera traditions” in
separated churches can be included in the proposed “cultural characteristics
explanation”.
