Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot

After a magical three nights at Goatfell, we sorrowful departed.  Though our hearts were not heavy for long. For we were returning to Ella, the green mountain hill station that has become nearly as comfortable as our own home. 

Just in time, too, to celebrate Peter turning 11. 

Amba, the working tea plantation where we usually stay, bent over backwards to make Peter feel special.  We spent last New Year's in Ella, too, on the precipice of what we knew would be a momentous and important year, though we wouldn't have dared opine as to how truly momentous and important it would be. Maybe a bit of superstition would have kept us from the green mountains of Ella at the dawn of this new year, but fortunately we are not a superstitious people and not easily scared by bad omens. 

Though that didn't keep us from happily participating in a ritual ceremony, held at an auspicious hour on New Year's Day, to bless the tea fields and in hopes the year will be prosperous and bountiful. 

The ceremony was similar to ones we'd attended in India called a "puja", a Hindu ritual held to commemorate special events.  Most of the Sri Lankans at Amba, however,  are Sinhalese Buddhists, so it was interesting to see how they'd adapted this Hindu ritual. 

An aristocratic -- if not fully British colonial air -- hangs over many Sri Lanka festivities.  This is neither a good or bad thing or a judgement. Perhaps, the crafting of a paper hat from newspaper isn't a British tradition after all, though I came away from the weekend with that impression.  

Despite returning to the same place we brought in 2020, we are looking forward to the new year. Like the song "Auld Lang Syne", a series of rhetorical questions, all amounting to the point that unless you are completely dead inside, you should be able to appreciate the virtues of reconnecting with old friends and thinking about old times.