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The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic and its octagonal tower across Kandy Lake, with forested hills behind

Festivals and Events in Sri Lanka

Start with the best-known places: Temple of the Tooth, Kandy, Nallur Temple and Jaffna.

16 guides1 itinerary passes throughChecked 5 Oct 2026

Plan your route

Where to find festivals and events

  • Northern Province 6 guides
  • Central Province 2 guides
  • North Central Province 2 guides
  • Uva Province 2 guides
  • Western Province 1 guide
  • North Western Province 1 guide
  • Sabaragamuwa Province 1 guide
  • Southern Province 1 guide

Top places for festivals and events

Map of Festivals and Events

The 9 places with coordinates in their guides; numbers match the top places.

Map of 9 places
  1. 1Temple of the Tooth
  2. 2Nallur Temple
  3. 3Mihintale
  4. 4Madhu Shrine
  5. 5Kelaniya Temple
  6. 6Nagapooshani Amman Temple
  7. 7Kandy
  8. 8Jaffna
  9. 9Kataragama
Open in Google Maps© Mapbox © OpenStreetMap

Around Kandy, by distance

Road distance from Kandy to each guide's map point. Places without a road route show the straight-line distance.

© openrouteservice.org by HeiGIT | Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors

Festivals and Events in pictures

Photos from the guides, credited on each page.

  • The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic and its octagonal tower across Kandy Lake, with forested hills behind
  • The long stone rampart of Jaffna Fort rising from a green moat under a clear blue sky, with a colonial building on the grassy wall top
  • Kandy Lake and the town around it seen from a wooded hillside, with hills and a white Buddha statue on the skyline
  • The golden arched entrance pavilion of Nallur Kandaswamy Temple, with a carved gateway tower behind it and a second tower to the right, under a blue sky
  • The long stone rampart of Jaffna Fort rising from a green moat under a clear blue sky, with a colonial building on the grassy wall top
  • Aradhana Gala, a granite rock outcrop with railings and steps to its summit, above trees with lakes and plains beyond
  • Arched gateway of the Ruhunu Maha Kataragama Devalaya, with a peacock on top, elephant statues on the pillars and a row of carved elephants along the wall
  • The cream-and-blue columned front of Madhu church, with 'Ave Maria' signs in Tamil, English and Sinhala, a paved forecourt and a blue bell tower on the left
  • The large white paddy-heap stupa of Kelaniya temple with small gateway shrines at its base, rising above a sandy courtyard under a cloudy sky

Temple in festivals and events

Where to go for festivals and events

Experiences: festivals and events

Weather in Kandy this week

  1. TodayThunderstorms30° 21°100%
  2. TueThunderstorms30° 21°100%
  3. WedThunderstorms29° 21°91%
  4. ThuRain29° 21°91%
  5. FriRain28° 21°100%
  6. SatRain29° 21°98%
  7. SunRain28° 21°98%

Daily high and low in °C, chance of rain. Forecast for the guide's coordinates, refreshed every few hours. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com

Itineraries for festivals and events

What recent visitors report

Lines from the guides' 2025–26 visitor reports.

Frequently asked about Festivals and Events

What are the opening hours of the Temple of the Tooth?

Daily from 5.30 am to 8 pm. Rituals take place around 5.30 to 7 am, 9.30 to 11 am and 6.30 to 8 pm. From the Temple of the Tooth guide

How many days do you need in Jaffna?

Three or four nights: one day for the town and Nallur, one for Delft or Nainativu, and one for the peninsula's north coast. Add two nights on Mannar Island for a full week in the north. From the Northern Sri Lanka in 7 days guide

Can I take the train to Kandy?

Not yet: the line has been reopening in stages since Cyclone Ditwah damaged it in November 2025. The travel update at the top of this page shows how far trains currently run. From the Kandy guide

Do men have to take off their shirts at Nallur temple?

Yes. Men enter bare-chested, and the temple makes no exceptions. Everyone removes their shoes, too. From the Nallur Temple guide

Is the train to Jaffna running?

Yes. After repairs following Cyclone Ditwah, the Jaffna Intercity and the Night Mail returned on 9 April 2026, and the Yal Devi on 11 May 2026. The journey from Colombo takes around eight hours. From the Jaffna guide

Why is Mihintale important?

Buddhist tradition holds that the monk Mahinda met King Devanampiya Tissa here in the 3rd century BC and introduced Buddhism to Sri Lanka. From the Mihintale guide

Before you go

Header photo: Philip Nalangan / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.