First ever ‘Love Sri Lanka Festival’ to celebrate 70th Independence Day

Sri Lanka will be celebrating the 70th Independence Day on 4 February 2018. In Sri Lanka, we celebrate so many festivals on religious and ethnic lines but we wanted to celebrate an occasion that all Sri Lankans can come together and celebrate as one nation regardless of ethnic and religious divisions.       

The Mother Sri Lanka movement (MSL) has decided that the Independence Day of our Motherland, as the most appropriate day that all Sri Lankans can celebrate together. The movement is inviting all Sri Lankans to join and celebrate been a Sri Lankan, or ‘Sri Lankan ness’ on this Independence Day. It is an opportunity for all of us living in this beautiful country to put aside all differences and appreciate and celebrate the good things about our motherland, the positive values of the Sri Lankan people.

With this objective in mind MSL has launched a series of events to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of Independence in a grand scale with the aim of re-kindling the ‘Love for Sri Lanka’ and to remind us to live as ‘One family of twenty million people’. As a charitable, non-political organisation promoting the pride of being a Sri Lankan for the last 10 years, and as an organisation who always believed in the potential of Sri Lanka, MSL has launched the following activities over a period of three months, which will be climaxing on Saturday, 3 February at the Viharamahadevi Grounds.   

The celebrations consist of 4 activities as follows:

• All island schools Drama Competition on the theme “I must change for my country to change”
• All island schools Song Competition on the theme “Sri Lanka: My country” jointly organised with the Ministry of Education
• Sri Lanka Souvenir Competition, which is open to the general public to display their creative talents and craftsman skills.  
• “Love Sri Lanka Festival” which will be the grand finale of the competitions to celebrate “everything Sri Lankan” to be held on 3 February 

“I must change for my country to change” drama competition

The schools Drama Competition was held with the objective of helping the children envision the future of this country and their future as citizens of the country. Sri Lankan children living all over the country were asked to create short street dramas to carry a message about their dreams and vision for a better Sri Lanka.  

The “Sri Lanka: My Country” song competition

Citizens express their feelings for their motherlands in different ways. Songs about your country, your motherland, composed from your heart, always take a special place among them. Most of the world’s known singers have sung patriotic songs which sometimes became number one hits in the world. We also do have many vintage songs about Sri Lanka. However, there has been no trend of creating new songs. “Though most of the countries in the world are inhabited with different ethnicities, citizens in a specific nation are introduced by the respective country’s unique name. Similarly, Sri Lanka is a multi-ethnic country and those who live in Sri Lanka are known as “Sri Lankans”. Sri Lanka does have a unique identity which includes the national flag, national anthem, national heroes, national resources, heritage, etc. Hence it is essential to arouse the feelings among the younger generation to value the ‘Sri Lankan ness’ despite diversities in race and religion,” said Dr. Janaki Kuruppu, Founder/Chairperson of the Mother Sri Lanka movement.

The provincial finals of these two competitions are now completed and the all island finalists of this competition will be performing at the festival on Saturday, 3 February at Viharamadevi Grounds from 10 a.m. onwards.

“Love Sri Lanka Festival: For the first time in the history of our country

The grand finale of all of these competitions is a Sri Lanka festival that will depict everything Sri Lankan. It will be a celebration of being a Sri Lankan, with local art, craft, culture and street drama displayed and demonstrated during the whole day from 10 a.m. onwards and ending with a live musical show by the band Infinity. The festival will showcase local street food and beverages, local fashion and accessories, music and entertainment. It is envisaged to make this an opportunity for small and medium local street food manufacturers and small time entertainers who will be allowed to perform along the street.

The highlight of the festival will be the exhibition and award ceremony for the winning entries of the street drama, song and souvenir competitions which will be held at 5 p.m. in the presence of the President. At the completion of the schools programs, a live performance by the band “Infinity” especially for the youthful Sri Lankans will be the grand finale of the celebrations. All proceeds of this event will be a contribution to the charity work conducted by Mother Sri Lanka.

For more details visit www.mothersrilanka.lk/festival.