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PUBLIC HOLIDAYS & SPECIAL EVENTS
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Traditionally Myanmar follows a 12 month
lunar calendar, so the old holidays and festivals will vary in date, by the
Gregorian calendar, from year to year. Myanmar also has a number of more
recently originated holidays whose dates are fixed by the Gregorian calendar.
Festivals are drawn-out, enjoyable affairs in Myanmar. They generally take
place or culminate on full-moon days, but the build-up can continue for days.
There's often a country-fair atmosphere about these festivals at some
convenient grounds there will be innumerable stall and activitics that go on
all night. Pwes, music and Burmese boxing bouts will all be part of the
colourful scene. The normally calm Burmese can get really worked up during
these festivals as a full-moon festival on one of our visits to Yangon the
supporters of the defeated favourite in a boxing bout were so enraged they
wrecked the arena, and subsequent bouts had to be cancelled.
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January/Febuary
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| Independence Day |
| Indenpendence Day on 4 January
is a major public holiday marked by a seven day fair at Kandawgyi (Royal) Lake
in Yaneon. Theare are fairs all over the country at this time. |
| Union Day |
Union Day on 12 Febuary
celebrates Bogyoke Aung San's short-lived achievement of unifying Myanmar's
disparate racial groups. For two weeks preceding Union Day, the national flag
is paraded from town to town, and wherever the the flag rests there must be a
festival.The month of Tabodwe culminates in a rice-harvesting festival on the
new-moon day.Htamin (literally, rice), a special food-offering made and eaten
at this time, consists of glutinous rice mixed with sesame, peanuts, shredded
ginger and coconut. In villages large batches of htamin are cooked over open
fires and stirred with big wooden paddles until they become a thick mass. after
which the rice is wrapped in small banana-leaf parceis and distributed among
all the members of the community.
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Febuary/March
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| Shwedagon Festival |
The lunar month of Tabaung brings the
annual Shwedagon Festival, the largest paya pwe (pagoda festival) in Myanmar.
The full-moon day in Tabaung is also an auspicious occasion for the
construction of new payas, and local paya festivals are held.
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| Peasants' Day/Armed Forces Day |
Two holidays fall during our month of
March: 2 March is Peasant's Day,while 27 March is Resistance or Armed Foces
Day, celebrated with parades and firework. Since 1989, the Tatmadaw has made it
is tradition to pardon a number of prisoners on Armed Forces Day.
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| April/May |
| Buddha's Birthday |
| The full-moon day of Kason is celebrated as the
Buddha's birthday, the day of his enlightenment and the day he entered pibbana.
Thus it known as the 'thrice blessed day'. The holiday is celebrated by the
ceremonial watering of the trees, the sacred banyan tree under which Buddha
attained enlightenment. One of the be places to observe this ceremony is at
Yangon Shwedagon Paya, where a procession of giant carry earthen jars to water
the three banyan trees on the western side of the compound. |
| Water Festival |
Around the middle of April, the
three day Thingyan (Water festival) starts the Burmese New Year. Thingyan, from
the Sanskrit samkranta (fully passed over), celebrates the passage of the sun
from the sign of Pisces into the sign of Aries in zodiac. This is the height of
the dry and hot season and, as in Thailand's Songkran , it is celebrated in a
most raucous manner- by throwing buckets of cold water at anyone who dares to
venture into the streets. Foreignere not exempt.
In cities, temporary stages called
pandal (from the Tamil pendel) are erected along main thoroughfares. Each
pandal ss sponsored by civic groups, neighbourhood associations, student
societies or government departments, the members of whom stand next to rows of
water barrels and douse every person or vehicle that passes by.
On a spiritual level, the Burmese
believe that during this three day period the king of the nats (spirits),
Thagyamin, visits the human world to tally his annual record of the good deeds
and misdeeds humans have performed. Villagers place flowers and sacred leaves
in front of their homes to welcome the nat .Thagyamin's departure on the
morning of the third day marks the beginning of the new year, when properly
brought-up youung people wash the hair of their elder kin, Buddha images are
ceremonially washed and pongyis (monks) are offered particularly appetising
almsfood. Although the true meaning of the festival is still kept alive by
ceremonies such as these, nowadays it's mainly a festival of fun. In between
getting soaked, there will be dancing, singing and theatre. In the latter, the
emphasis is on satire - particularly making fun of the government, the latest
female fashions and any other items of everyday interest. Cultural taboo
against women acting in a boisterous manner are temporarily lifted, so women
can 'kidnap' young men, blacken their faces with soot or oil, bind their hands
and dunk their 'heads in buckets of water until the boys surrender and perform
a hilarious monkey dance for the girls.
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| Workers' Day |
Although the government
renounced sociali in 1989, the country still celebrates MayDay 1 MAy-as
Workers' Day.
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| June/July |
| Buddhist Lent |
| The full moon of Waso is the
beginning of three month Buddhist 'Lent'.Laypeople pre monasteries with stacks
of new robes for dent monks, since during the Lent period months are restricted
to their monasteries for a proled period of piritual retreat. Ordinary people
also expected to be rather more religious during this time - marrages do not
take place any inauspicious to move house. The most of Burmese Buddhist will
observe eight precise rather than the usual five-for the duration season. This
is a good time for young men temporarily enter the monasteries. |
| Martyrs's Day |
The 19th of July is Martyr's Day,comrade rating the assassination of Bogyoke
Aung San and his comrades on that day in 1947.We are laid at his mausoleam
north Shwedagon Paya in Yangon. Government officials probably pray the Burmese
people attempt to reinstall the planned civilize government aborted by Aung
San's assassination.
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| July/August |
| Wagaung Festival |
At the festival in Wagaung lots
are drawn who will have to provide monks with the rice. If you're in Mandalay,
try to get to Taugnnu about 30km north where there is a no day festival to keep
the nats happy.
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| September/October |
| Boat Races |
| This is the height of the wet
season, so what better time to hold boat races? They're held in rivers,lakes
and even ponds all over Myanmar ,but the best place to be is Inle where the
Buddha images at the Phaung Daw U Kyaung are ceremonially toured around the
lake in the huge royal barge, the Karaweik. The latter comes just before the
festival of Thadingyut and usually overlaps late September and early October. |
| Thadingyut |
In Thadingyut the Buddhist Lent comes to an end and all those couples who had
been putting of marriage now rush into each other's arms. Monks are free to
travel from kyaung to kyaung or to go on pilgrimage to holy spots such as
Kyaiktiyo or Mt Popa. The Festival of Lights takes place during Thadingyut to
celebrate Buddha's return from a period of preaching dhamma (Buddhist
philosophy) in Tavatimsa (the highest deva realm), his way lit by devas who
lined the route of his descent. For the three days of the festival all of
Myanmar is lit by oil lamps, fire balloons, candles and even mundane electric
lamps. Every house has a paper lantern hanging outside and it's happy, joyful
time all over Myanmar - particularly after the solemnity of the previous three
months. Pwes may. be performed on pandals (stage platforms) erected along city
streets,particularly in Mandalay.
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| October/November |
| Tazaungmon |
| The full-moon night of
Tazaungmon is an Occasion for another `festival of lights', known properly as
Tazaungdaing. It's particularly celebrated in the Shan State - in Taunggyi
there are fire balloon competitions. In some areas there are also speed-weaving
competitions during the night young Burmese women show their prowess at weaving
by attempting to produce robes for Buddha images between dusk and dawn. The
results, finished or not, are donated to the monks. The biggest weaving
competitions take place at Shwedagon Paya in Yangon. |
| Kahtein |
| Tazaungmon also brings kahtein
(Pali :kathina), a one month period at the end of Buddhist Lent during which
new monastic robes and requisites are offered to the monastic community. Many
people simply donate cash; kyat notes are folded and stapled into floral
patterns on wooden 'trees' called padetha and offered to the monasterics. This
symbolises a much older tradition in which laypeople would leave kathina robes
hanging from tree branches in the forest for monks to find. |
| National Day |
Myanmar's national day falls in late
November or early December.
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| November/December |
| Nadaw |
| During Nadaw, many nat pwes are held;
Nadaw is actually spelt with the characters for nat and taw (respectful
honorific). |
| Christmas |
Despite Myanmar's predominantly
Buddhist background, Christmas Day is a public holiday in deference to the many
Christian Kayin.
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| December/January
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| Kayin New Year |
| Held on the first waxing moon of
Pyatho, the Kayin new year is considered a national holi- day .Kayin
communities throughout Myanrmar celebrate by wearing their traditional dress of
woven tunics over red longyis and by hosting folk dancing and singing
performances. The largest celebrations are held in the Kayin suburb of Insein,
just north of Yangon, and in Hpaan, the capital of the Kayin State. |
| Ananda Festival |
| The Ananda Festival, held at the
Ananda Paya in Bagan, also takes place during Pyatho. |
| Paya Pwes |
| In addition to these main pan-Myanmar
festivals, nearly every active paya or kyaung community hosts occasional
celebrations of its own, often called pagoda festivals in Burmese English. The
typical paya pwe features the same kinds of activities as a major festival
-craft and food vendors, music and dance - on a smaller scale. The biggest
pro-liferation of paya fairs occur on full-moon days and nights during the
January to March period, following the main rice harvest. providing local paddy
farmers and their families a good excuse to party. The festivals also offer
added market venues for local basketweavers, potters, woodcarvers, blacksmiths,
longyi-weavers and other artisans. To the professional hse-hna pave thi
(twelve-festival traders) who travel from festival to festival following the
lunar calendar, the smaller paya fairs serve as convenient fillers between
major gigs. Other assorted camp followers include fortunetellers. movable
teashops, tent barbers, homespun beauty consultants, pickpockets and
professional beggars. Particular paya festivals are described in the
appropriate destination sections throughout this guidebook. |
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More Info:
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Religious
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12 Months' Festivals
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References
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Travel & Tour
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