The annual National War Heroes’ Day commemoration ceremony will be held on 19 May 2026 at the National War Heroes’ Monument in Battaramulla, marking the 17th anniversary of the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war.
The event will be held under the patronage of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and is scheduled to begin at 2.45 pm, The Island reported.
Sri Lanka brought the conflict to a close on 18 May 2009. The war-winning government had held a combined armed forces parade as the centrepiece of the annual commemoration, but President Maithripala Sirisena discontinued the practice in 2016. Subsequent administrations have observed the day with a smaller-format ceremony at the Battaramulla monument and a wreath-laying by the President as Commander-in-Chief.
The 2026 ceremony will be the second National War Heroes’ Day commemoration overseen by Dissanayake since the NPP came to office in late 2024. The day falls on the anniversary that Tamil and reconciliation groups separately mark as Mullivaikkal Remembrance Day for civilians killed in the final phase of the war in 2009.
The Defence Ministry has not announced any change in format from the wreath-laying ceremony observed in recent years. State commemorations are typically attended by senior military leadership, the Defence Secretary and Chiefs of the Army, Navy and Air Force, alongside families of war veterans and serving personnel.
May 18–19 is also observed by Tamil groups as Mullivaikkal Remembrance Day. Tamil National Alliance MP M.A. Sumanthiran recently inaugurated a restored Tissa Vihara in Thaiyiddy, while Tamil Nadu MP Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam reaffirmed the Tamil Nadu legislature’s 2013 genocide resolution as the commemoration approaches.
