'Happy 2080!': South and Southeast Asian communities celebrate New Years in Columbus
Neetyaa Bhattarai likes to joke with her peers at Ohio State University that she comes from the future.
“It's not like we're living in 2023 — we are like, years ahead,” Bhattarai, 20, a junior computer science major and president of the Nepali Students Association, told the Dispatch.
On Friday, her group is celebrating 2080 — the new year according to the Nepali Hindu calendar.
Columbus’ Nepali community is one among several South and Southeast Asian groups in the area who mark the new year this week. Cultures from India to Sri Lanka, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia all start new calendars on or around April 14.
In Laos and Thailand, the festival known as Songkran is celebrated from April 13-15, marked by pouring water on friends and family members as a symbol of cleansing and good luck for the year ahead. It is the year 2566 according to the Thai Buddhist calendar, based on when the Buddha is said to have died and entered parinirvana, the afterlife of the enlightened.
In Columbus, the local Lao and Thai communities hold annual celebrations at the Wat Buddha Samakidham Temple on the East Side, as well as several other Buddhist congregations.
Chathuri Perera, 30, an OSU graduate student in biochemistry who is originally from Sri Lanka, said the on-campus Sri Lankan Students’ Association is also planning an event this year.
Sri Lankan new year, known as Aluth Avurudda among the country’s majority Sinhalese population and Puthandu among Tamils, the largest minority group, is celebrated just as the rice harvest is completed, Perera said.
“The ancient significance (was) to celebrate the new crops and offer the fresh harvest to gods and to Lord Buddha. Nowadays, it’s more of a nationwide holiday, and if you’re staying in the city, you go (to your hometown) and celebrate with your family and friends,” she said.
Perera said many Sri Lankans observe an “inauspicious period” for several hours preceding the new year by not eating, cooking or working. But once the new year begins, they start festivities by lighting fire crackers and cooking special foods, like rice cooked in milk.
“It’s a time of relaxing and bonding,” she said.
Related: Hope and new beginnings: How 3 refugee-oriented Columbus churches celebrate Easter
The Nepali Students Association’s event at OSU on Friday will feature music, dance and comedy performances, as well as traditional dishes like sel roti (rice flour doughnuts) and kheer (rice pudding), according to Bhattarai.
Senior psychology major Arati Chapagai, 21, the association’s past president, said new year was a special time when she was growing up in a Bhutanese Nepali refugee camp in Nepal, before resettling in the U.S. when she was 8.
Organizing the event at OSU has been a way to teach the next generation from the community about their own culture, said Bhattarai.
“The younger kids don't know anything about the…Nepali calendar at all. I think the best part about (the Nepali Students Association) is being able to create a space at the Ohio State campus where people can come together, talk about their culture, their backgrounds,” she said. “You really get to learn a lot.”
Related: During Ramadan fasting, Columbus' Muslim chefs keep cooking
Peter Gill covers immigration and new American communities for The Dispatch in partnership with Report for America. You can support work like his with a tax-deductible donation to Report for America here:bit.ly/3fNsGaZ.
pgill@dispatch.com
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: "Happy 2080!: South and Southeast Asian New Years in Columbus
