Milk wine at New Year in Sri Lanka

On 31 December many Christian families attend a watchnight or thanksgiving service at church, giving thanks for the year past. Afterwards, or before, families gather at home or with relatives for dinner, and at midnight there are fireworks across Colombo and the coast.

Milk wine is often part of the evening, poured in small glasses at midnight or with dessert. In some homes it sits beside champagne or sparkling wine for the toast, a mix of the local and the international.

Hotels in Colombo and on the coast hold New Year's Eve galas and parties, and some include milk wine or a clarified arrack punch among the festive drinks.

New Year's Day is a time for family. In many Burgher homes, the morning begins with breudher, the Dutch yeast cake, sliced, buttered and eaten with Dutch-style cheese. It is a custom that goes back generations.

Relatives and friends visit through the day, and the Christmas tray comes out again: cake, milk wine, love cake and sweets. For many families this is the last big day of visiting in the season.

Lunch may be a family feast, sometimes with lamprais or a traditional rice and curry spread. Milk wine appears again with dessert.

Breudher is a rich yeast cake baked in a fluted mould, made with butter, eggs, sugar and raisins. It comes from the Dutch tradition, and Burgher families make it for Christmas and especially for New Year.

Breudher is lighter and less sweet than Christmas cake, and a glass of milk wine makes a natural companion. The combination of buttery cake, salty cheese and sweet spiced milk wine is a New Year taste for many families.

Bakeries in Colombo sell breudher in December and January, so visitors can try it even without an invitation.

Visitors who are in Sri Lanka over New Year often find themselves invited to a family celebration, especially if they have friends on the island. Accept a small glass of milk wine and a slice of breudher or cake; it is a warm welcome.

Hotels are busy over New Year, and minimum stays are common, so booking early matters. Lankan Stays & Trails can plan a festive trip that covers Christmas and New Year, with time in Colombo and Negombo, where Christian traditions are easiest to see.

Be careful on the roads on New Year's Eve, when traffic is heavy and police checks are common. Do not drink milk wine before driving.

The festive season usually winds down in the first week of January, as people go back to work and children back to school. Christmas decorations come down around Epiphany, on 6 January, in many Catholic homes.

By then, most milk wine has been drunk. Bottles that remain are kept, because milk wine keeps for months, and may be opened for birthdays, anniversaries or a later family gathering. Some families keep a bottle until the next Christmas to compare with the new batch.

Visitors arriving after the first week of January will find milk wine harder to taste, as fairs end and home bakers stop selling it.

Sri Lanka has two New Year celebrations. The Gregorian New Year on 1 January is celebrated by Christians and by many others with parties and fireworks. The Sinhala and Tamil New Year in mid April is the island's biggest cultural festival, celebrated by Buddhists and Hindus with milk rice and sweets.

Milk wine belongs only to the January New Year and the Christmas season. At the April New Year, the traditional foods are kiribath, kavum, kokis and other sweets, not milk wine.