Thingyan Water Festival, Burmese New Year Festival

Thingyan is the Burmese New Year and usually falls around mid-April. It is a traditional festival celebrated over a period of four to five days culminating in the New Year.

Time for festival

Thingyan is a public holiday in Myanmar usually celebrated over three days beginning on 13 April. The public holidays given for each year will depend on which day of the week, 13 April falls on. Thingyan are the most important and the biggest festival in Myanmar. Formerly the dates of Thingyan would have been based on the Burma lunisolar calendar, but the dates have now been fixed on 13 April.

Origin of Thingyan

This is an ancient festival and when it was first observed, the movement of the sun into Aries would have been closer to the Vernal Equinox which marks the arrival of spring in the northern hemisphere.

The legend of the origin of Thingyan relates to an argument over a mathematical problem between two gods. The loser of this argument had his head cut off. However, when his head hit the ground, the earth would burn, if thrown in the sea, the water would dry up and if thrown in the air, it would explode in a fireball. To keep this from happening, seven goddesses took turns holding the head for a year each, changing over on Thingyan. The winner of the argument cut off the head of an elephant and stuck it on the headless body, thereby creating the god, Ganesh.

Celebration of Thingyan

Before festival begins, Buddhist people carry out an important ritual of “Bathing the Buddha”. In villages and towns, young people go the monasteries, temples and pagodas to clean all Buddha images with scented water.  During that time, monasteries, temples and pagodas are also cleaned by those groups at the same time.  In our more modern societies, people wash the Buddha images in the family shrine room with scented water.  In general, people start water throwing only after the 'Bathing the Buddha' ritual has completed.  Throughout the cleaning ritual period, groups sing and dance happily to Thingyan Songs, whilst others who cannot resist the temptation of fun begin to throwing water at each other once outside the monasteries or pagodas on their way home.

If you are in Myanmar during Thingyan, prepare to get wet. Everyone is likely to get soaking as people roam around with buckets of water or hose, spraying water on anyone they can. This tradition originates from the custom of washing away the bad luck and misfortune of the previous year, entering the new year cleansed from the past. Water cleansing is a custom common in many New Year festivals around the world.

Read more: Songkran Festival, wet or very wet!

Another activity

Another indispensable activity is going to the pagodas. Early in the morning, most of the local people gather in the central areas where traditional music and dance performances are played with lively and jubilant voices to welcome a new year. After that, they come to the temples and pagodas to pray for a lucky year for their family and relatives. On these days, the people do many good deeds such as offering to the monks, paying homage to parents, teachers and the elderly, setting the animals free.

Different from the other Southeast Asian countries, Myanmar has been open to the world recently, which helps it remain all of the uniquely traditional cultures. Let’s go and discover this remarkable land!

Source Internet