May 10, 2021
Virtual Avurudu Celebrations – 2021
Due to the global pandemic and social distancing being essential for our safety, an Avurudu celebration amidst all this risk sounds rather impossible to do. Hence it remains a part of a sentimental memory in us all – but not for us at LNBTI. After a busy day’s work on the 9th of April 2021, the LNBTI family gathered together virtually to celebrate LNBTI’s first Virtual Avurudu Celebration for 2021 via Microsoft Teams. The evening was occupied with many traditional games involving everyone from the lecturers, the admins, and the student body – letting everyone have a taste of the Avurudu season whilst social distancing. The evening was celebrated with events such as:
Avurudu Kumara and Kumariya 2021:
Just like the original event, we showcased our dazzling participants through a broadcasted video. The audience voted for their winner via a poll, from which we choose our ‘Most Popular Avurudu Kumara and Kumariya’ and the LNBTI’s ‘Avurudu Kumara and Kumariya’ for 2021.
The Hidden Guest and the Petal Guessing Game:
The fun wasn’t just limited to the students, but the lecturers and other bodies of the college also showed off their skills! For this event, we had a lecturer become our hidden guest for the day, and the audience would get a small hint as to who our guest is. And as for the Petal Guessing game, we displayed a blurred image of the flower at the beginning and asked the audience to guess the number of petals. Later, our votes was casted via online polls and the true guest and numbers of petals were revealed. If I must comment, our family is full of smart detectives!
Ice Breaker Discussion:
To tone down the excitement, the audience individually participated in a ice breaker session, The event would start off with one person having a topic on which he/she shared their personal experience about it, and then they would choose a topic from the list provided and pass it onto the next. It was a very enjoyable and a rather gentle session as everyone would chuckle and smile over their experiences and tiny life stories they shared with one another. Personally speaking, I felt that this event bought us closure after such a long time period of time conducting online learning and loosing touch via social distancing – reminding us that we were still indeed together.
In LNBTI, teamwork and corporation are firmly interwoven into our work and study ethics – and we didn’t forget about this even in times of celebration. For our final events, 2 games based on teamwork were present in the agenda.
Jana Gee Competition:
To reminiscence the past and its minute traditions, a Jana Gee or Folk song competition was held between students. Each team would be given 2 categories, and were judged by a judge panel under certain criteria. It was indeed nice to relive some beautiful tunes from the past once again.
Avurudu Trivia:
Bringing our celebrations to a closure, we decided to test our wits in a mini Avurudu Trivia filled with questions and ruddles about the festive season! First, the student teams would face off one another, and the winning student team would eventually contest against the lecturers. It was an event everyone was enthusiastic about, and the audience ended up learning so many details about Avurudu which they never knew about. The event ended with cheers of victory and sighs of defeat, but nevertheless – laughter and joy.
Converting such a physically engaging and social event into that of an equally immersive virtual event had its challenges, but the family of LNBTI guided the occasion to a success. Ever body had a great time participating and engaging with one another, before giving their farewells into the holiday season – leaving behind a fond memory of warm evening filled with the spirit of Avurudu and its prosperity!
