The Sinhalese and Tamil New Year, also known as Aluth Avurudu (Sinhala) and Puthandu (Tamil), is celebrated on April 13 or 14. It is also known as the Sun Festival, a festivities with rituals rooted in indigenous, astrological, Hindu, and Buddhist traditions.

During the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, Sri Lankan Muslims observe the sacred month. Muslims believe that during Ramadan, God revealed the first verses of the Quran, the holy text, to Prophet Mohammed in "The Night of Power" (Laylat-al-Qadr), which fell on one of the nights during the last ten days of Ramadan.

In Tainan, we stayed in the Western Central District near Shennong Street (神農街), famous for its 100-year-old home dotting the narrow lane. It’s a vibrant district brimmed with shops, cafes, and bars. There is also a traditional market nearby filled with delicious street food. There is even a Japanese sashimi bar that had fresh oysters.

Maha Shivaratri, also known as the Great Night of Shiva, commemorates “overcoming darkness and ignorance.” Hindus worldwide observe this occasion by celebrating Lord Shiva, the supreme god also known as the destroyer. He is one of the triple deities of supreme divinity in Hinduism, alongside Brahma, the creator, and Vishnu, the preserver. Shiva’s role is to destroy the universe—to rid illusions, imperfections, and negative human traits from the universe and then recreate it. Therefore, Shiva is a source of good and evil with many contradictory elements…

Love is in the air in February, but why? The ancient Romans held a festival in mid-February that celebrated the coming of spring that included fertility rites where men and women were paired off by a lottery system.

As the year of ox waves its tail goodbye, we welcome the piercing gaze of the year of the Tiger. But how were the animals selected?

According to Chinese legend, the Jade Emperor, the ruler of Heaven and Earth, decided that there needed to be a way to measure the passing of the seasons in twelve-year increments. Therefore, he invited the animals in his kingdom to a race on the first day of the new year. The first twelve animals to arrive at the Gate of Heaven would represent the years.

Every Christmas, Derek and I think fondly of the Christmas we spent in Mount Lavinia. We miss the stunning beach we called our local and the delicious egg hoppers we enjoyed at Mount Lavinia Hotel. We also laugh about the creepy Santa— an exclusively Sri Lankan Christmas experience that is unmatched anywhere else.  

2021 has been a rollercoaster ride of a year! Now that we are coming up to Parampara’s first birthday, we thought we’d give you a little update on how we are doing.

Minnette de Silva was a talented Sri Lankan architect who many people in her country have not heard of. She was Sri Lanka’s first Modernist architect who spear-headed the Critical Regionalism approach in architecture. A fiercely independent woman of her time, she called herself the “Asian Woman Architect” in the 1940s.

Diwali is derived from the Sanskrit word Deepavali, meaning ‘rows of lights.’ It is a fun, festive celebration of lights that takes place each year from the 13th day of the dark half of the lunar month Ashivna to the second day of the light half of the month Karrika. In the Gregorian calendar, the festival usually falls sometime in October or November.

With the rustling of fallen leaves under my feet and the smell of roasted pumpkin in the air, I have always anticipated Halloween: the candies, the parties, and most of all, the costumes. Dressing up was always my favourite part. I’d spend months planning the perfect costume. Six years ago, I decided to blend my two loves by marrying the man of my dreams on Halloween.

“Where are you from?” seems like an innocuous question, but it’s always a challenge for me to answer. Is the person asking about my heritage, my citizenship, or where I live? Sometimes the asker wants the ‘obvious’ answer— like China or somewhere else in Asia, based on the colour of my skin. Sometimes the asker assumes I am from the US because I speak English.

The story of Samudra Manthana (The Churning of the Milky Ocean) may be considered the origin story of Lakshmi. The story starts with Indra, the warrior god, who was responsible for protecting the world against the asuras (demons). One day, Durvasa, a sage, offered Indra a garland of sacred flowers. Indra, in his carelessness, dropped the flowers to the ground, which offended Darvas. As a result, the sage cursed Indra and the devas to lose their power and strength. In the devas' weakness, the asuras gained momentum and threatened to take over the world.

As summer wanes and the leaves begin to turn, I am thinking about full moon festivals. In September, the full moon is observed during poya in Sri Lanka and the Mid-autumn festival in Taiwan and other Asian countries.

A kind person wrote recently to inform Derek and me that we misspelled 'jewellery' on our website. She even recommended tools that we could use to catch typos and spelling errors in the future. The English variation used by Sri Lankans is British English, which was introduced to the island nation when the British invaded and took control of the colony from the Dutch in the late 18th century.

Walking around in the hustle and bustle of Colombo, it's difficult to imagine the city in flames during Black July. Thirty-eight years ago, on July 24, 1983, the Sinhalese mob attacked their Tamil neighbours to avenge 13 soldiers killed at the hands of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The mob looted and torched Tamil homes and businesses in the capital, and the chaos eventually spread throughout the country.

How do you decide where to go on a trip? Here at Parampara, food is often a major deciding factor for Derek and me. We figure where there are good eats, there is culture and history to explore. Besides, a stunning, historical city is a fabulous backdrop for a photo shoot that features our vintage and antique pieces. Since we had some Expedia credits to burn, we took a jaunt down to New Orleans, Louisiana.

When Derek and I were planning the aesthetics of the Parampara brand, he was inspired by Lionel Wendt's black and white portraits. They are powerful images with dramatic lighting that immortalize the human form, making the subjects appear statuesque, reminiscent of Rodin's The Thinker.

I have been fantasizing about ancient Kandy and its queen consorts. As I am planning short stories for Parampara's second collection, which includes two Kandyan necklaces from the 18th and 19th centuries, I wanted to write stories inspired by the lives of the queen consorts of that time. I was excited about the idea, but the reality was much more challenging than I expected—There isn't much information about Kandyan queen consorts in English.

In Sri Lanka, the Sinhalese people mark a girl’s transition from a girl to a woman with a puberty ceremony, or more commonly called a ‘big girl party.’ Basically, after a daughter’s first period, her family throws a party for her, preparing a scrumptious feast and inviting family and friends who bring gifts for the newly minted woman.