Maaveerar Naal
Maaveerar naal means Great Heroes’ Day and takes place every year on 27th November, which is the day the first LTTE militant died. This day remembers the militants who fought alongside the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam).
The Sri Lankan civil war
The Sri Lankan war ended in 2009 after a long, gruesome fight. The war was mainly between the Sinhalese and LTTE. LTTE wanted Sri Lanka to have its own separate state. The Sinhala only act in 1956 meant that Sinhala was the official language. Tamil was excluded in this. There was rioting in Ceylon due to this by Tamils. Further, the standardisation policy, which was an attempt to help disadvantages Sinhalese students, required Tamils to gain higher marks than the Sinhalese to be admitted into Sri Lankan universities. Therefore, some Tamils wanted a separate state for themselves. Anti-Tamil riots started everywhere in Sri Lanka following the Four four bravo, which was when 13 Sri Lankan soldiers were killed by the LTTE in Jaffna. The Black July was riots that were targeted at Tamils in Colombo. This escalated quickly.
On 18 May 2009, the leader of the LTTE, Velupillai Prabhakaran was killed and the civil war that lasted for 25 years came to an end.
How is it commemorated?
Today lamps are lit to remember the lives lost in this war. The Tamil national flower, gloriosa superba, is also used on this day, as it is a LTTE symbol. A book called “Enathu Makkalin Viduthalaikkaga” (“For the liberation of my people”) which is a collection of memoirs written by Prabakharan was released on 12 November.
