Today was Sinhala and Tamil New Year and the lovely people in our hotel laid on versions of lots of traditional rituals and celebrations, which was great fun.

Being jaded urban sophisticates, we were reticent to join in at first thinking it all might be a bit naff and fake, but everyone was so overwhelmingly enthusiastic and happy, we soon realised that for the locals, all this was genuine because they were at work looking after us and not at home with their families, so actually it was all rather wonderful.

One of the rituals is the cooking and serving of the first kiribath, or milk rice after dawn of the new year.

...'milk is boiled in a new earthen pot and allowed to boil over, symbolising prosperity'...