Sunday, April 20th 2008, with the weather at 24 degrees Celsius, there was no chance for rain this year for Sinhala New Years at Dandenong Showgrounds, with the weather gleaming and Sinhalese people swarming towards the showgrounds. The official Sinhala Aluth Awurudhu started with the lighting with of the oil lamp (pahana), with Sri Lankan High Commissioner Mr. Kusumsiri Balapatabendi and the Victorian Member of Parliament Hon. Jude Perera being among the guests taking part in the ceremony. This was soon after followed by the traditional sounds of the drumming of the traditional ‘rabang’.

The traditional ‘Aluth Awurudhu’ Food was on the table next in the agenda, with food including kiribath, kokis, kaum, kesel (bananas), cake, biscuits and tea. With full stomachs and positive enthusiasm the events started soon after.

Compared to the years that have passed, the sinhala crowd this year was immense! New faces and old ones reuniting filled the showgrounds with laughter and joy. Especially this year, there were surprising new and unique events for the children and adults, with events such as the catching of the egg: where two contestants are involved, each made to catch the egg once in each whistle, with the winner being the one left with the uncracked egg.

Another popular even which took the crowd by surprise was the dummy event: where one contestant is made to wrap the other in toilet paper with the winner being the one able to wrap the dummy the neatest in a limit of five minutes. With many more interesting events such as, filling the water bottle with palms, musical hat event, and much more. These events haven’t even been carried out in Sri Lanka, which was what made this years’ Sinhala New Years stand out from the rest and better from the festivals celebrated in Sri Lanka itself.

The traditional events such as ‘the slippery tree’ (lissena gaha), the lemon and spoon race, the three legged race, sag races, running events, wheel barrow races, pinning the eye on the elephant, doughnut eating race, needle and thread event, kotta pora event, breaking of the pot (kana mutti bindima), popping of balloons race, grinding of the coconut race, event for the best dressed (‘wiketa andima’), and tug-o-war race were also very popular items where many contestants participated.

With the Lankan New Years coming to an end at around 5.30pm, the concluding event that took place was the 2008 Bakmaha New Years Beauty Pageant, which finished with one lucky beautiful girl taking home the crown and title of 2008 Awurudhu Kumari.

The Sinhala Bakmaha New Years Festival at Dandenong Showgrounds was such a success due to the impeccable organisation of the Sri Lankan German Technical Training Institute of Old Boys Association and the co-operation of the sinhala people of Melbourne, even compared with Sinhala New Years in Sri Lanka, the festival held at Dandenong Showgrounds felt just like a real sinhala festival back home.