Thousands of Sri Lankans celebrate New Year at anti-government protest site

Demonstrators take part in a ritual of boiling milk to mark the Shinala and Tamil new year during their protest against Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in front of the Presidential secretariat, amid the country's economic crisis in Colombo, Sri Lanka April 14, 2022. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte

COLOMBO (Reuters) - At an auspicious time early on Thursday, Dilani Jayaratne lit a small wood fire to boil a small pot of milk to mark the start of Sri Lanka's New Year.

The island nation's Sinhala and Tamil communities usually conduct the ceremony at home. But this year, Jayaratne and her family were at a tent camp in Sri Lanka's commercial capital Colombo, where thousands of people are protesting against the government's handling of a devastating economic crisis.