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Myanmar
Festival - Myanmar
Festivals
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Myanmar Festival,
Myanmar festivals,
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- There are plenty
of festivals around
but one Myanmar
festival is topping
them all, that's the
water festival or
Thingyan,
Myanmar festivals have been
described as being confined to a single one, which begins in
April and goes on to the following March, the Myanmar water
festival or Thingyan, but that is an exaggeration. There are two
regular festivals of a week or ten days each, and several others
of a couple of days' duration, besides occasional festivities to
celebrate the completion of zedi and temples, -and last, but not
least, the cremation of the yahan. Myanmar New-Year - moon-
change at Tagu - falls in April, as the sun enters the sign of
Aries. The calendar has been regulated on the Brah'man model
with intercalary days and months. New-Year marks the peak in the
seasons ; the heat has reached its climax, to fall abruptly at
the break of the south-west monsoon.
Now
is the time of drought
; many of the wells are empty, and water has to be
fetched from a distance. There is no greater luxury than
abundance of water at this season ; water is the most seasonable
offering, and great supplies are stored in the jars at the
kyaungs. In a symbolic spirit, water is poured over the images
of the Buddha. But the great feature of the New-Year festival is
the burlesque of these libations. In the true spirit of the
festival, the women douse the men, and the men douse the women,
all regardless of their festal attire. The young women in
particular wait in ambush for the gallants, perhaps to be caught
in a second ambush by some urchin.
- The
liberty of water-throwing at Thingyan
lasts for the days of
akyo, akya, akydt, and atet, the stages of the
journey which a thadya makes from heaven to earth to
see the works of men if they be good. The legend is
probably derived from the Hindu myth of the rain-god
Indra, |
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to whom water is
offered at the season of his expected descent. A
religious feature of the festival is the ransom of
cattle. An animal kept for slaughter by the Indian
Muslim butcher is borrowed and gaily decked out,
with its horns gilded.
It is led round the village
or quarter of the town, followed by a festive throng, and
contributions are gathered until the price of the animal is made
up, when it is set free at the kyaung to be an evidence of
goodwill to all things living. Festival feeling, which often
Thingyan Festival Yangon |
runs high between the
quarters of a village, with their rival kyaung,- and
zed, finds an outlet at Tagu in the tug-of-war (Iun-swe).
As the superstitious whistle for the wind, so do they
expect to tug in the monsoon by this means, at the
season when everything is panting for rain. After Tagu,
the next festival season is Wazo -in June- the
commencement of the Buddhist Lent. This season is
signalized by the Shinlaung- festivals, the most popular
is still the Thingyan Festival.
During Lent there is no
regular festival. The great festival of Thadindyut
celebrates the close of Lent. It falls in October, when
the rains arc generally over, and is the one for which
the most extensive preparations are made. Every festival
is signalized by the offerings made to the yahan. But
now they are literally " poured " in profusion, as the
word implies (sun-/dung). Yazama - paths fenced with
bamboo trellis, such as those prepared for the progress
of royalty - are got ready along the chief thoroughfare.
Through these on the morning |
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of the great day the yahan
defile in endless procession. As many as a thousand
yahan may be invited to receive the Thadindyut offerings
in a large town. The offerings are poured into the
alms-bowls by the laity ; scholars are stationed at
intervals to relieve the yahan of their loads of
offerings.
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After the yahan come
pothudaw and methila. Both ends of the yazama
are decorated with arches of bamboo and tinsel.
About these are grouped life-size figures of
mythical import – dragons to guard the
entrance, princes and princesses of the rats to
take part in the honor done to the Thinga.
In the evenings fire balloons are sent off, and
the rivers are illuminated with rafts carrying
lamps which are set adrift. Labyrinths of bamboo
are erected round the zedi, which entertain the
children and especially the hill-people, who
pique themselves, not without reason, on their
sense of locality. These labyrinths arc called
Wingaba, after the mountain maze, to which
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Wethandaya was
banished by his father, in the zat legend who
weave it, and, in order to possess its proper
value, should he completed in a day and a night.
This is the only approach to a vigil. The
texture is loose, and broad bands of tinsel are
shot through to make up the woof faster.
Tawthalin is a minor festival, falling in Lent,
and observed only in Pegu.
The Tawthalin offerings are distinguished by
being in thousands, one thousand little cakes,
one thousand plantains, and so on. The number
one thousand is said to be symbolical of the
thousand gata or stanzas of the Wethandaya.zat,
the legend of Gautama Buddha's last incarnation
but one, closely prefiguring the final
incarnation.
Tazaungmon is the
next Myanmar festival after Thadindyut ; it is
kept in Bago, but not in Burma Proper. At this
season Buddhists commemorate the miraculous
journey of Gaudama Buddha to the nat
countryafter the death of his mother, to impart
to her the enlightenment which had come to him
on earth, and by means of which he had attained
peace. Spires of bamboo-work and tinsel -the
tazdzingdaing - are built twenty to fifty feet
high, as symbols of the stair by which Gaudama
ascended. These are carried round the place with
music, and are finally dedicated at the zedi.
In the interval
between Tazaungmon Myanmar festivals and
Thadindyut Myanmar festivals the katein- thingan
are dedicated, and the mathothingan are woven.
The katein-thingan is the annual supply of the
primitive par'-kaya, and is of a nominal
character, owing to the profusion of offerings
at other times.The mathothingan is a cloth where
with to deck the images of the Buddha and the
paring of the zedi. It is the offering of the
women.
Myanmar festivals
are more of the nature of great social holidays.
Many of these are the festivals of pagodas and
some are nat festivals, not all of them have any
connection with Buddhism.
- More on The New Year Festival or
Thingyan
known to
Western people as the Myanmar Water
Festival -similar to Songkran Festival
in Thailand, is almost the only festival
that is observed universally throughout
Myanmar.
Thingyan
takes place early in April and
celebrates the annual visit of the
Thagyamin or King of the Devas to
inaugurate the new year. The exact day
is fixed each year by the astrologers
who profess to have intimate knowledge
of his plans, and who also announce
whether he will stay on the earth for
three days or four. Early on the first
day crowds repair to the monastery with
pots of fresh clear water which are
respectfully offered to the monks, then
the images at the pagoda are
ceremonially washed. |
Thingyan at Yangon |
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After that the festival becomes one
joyous holiday and water is sprinkled or
more often thrown over anybody and
everybody, the idea behind it being
friendliness and cleansing. In former
times there was a deeper thought to the
festival 'children would not fail to
visit their parents and sprinkling them
with a few drops of water would ask
pardon for their negligence's of the
past year ; a similar thought would lurk
behind the offering of water to the
monks ; officials and employers would
receive visits from their juniors and
would be sprinkled with water symbolic
of blessing, good-will and respect. But
in modern times the Thingyan festival
tends to degenerate into a rollicking
time especially for the younger folk,
with buckets, hose-pipes, squirts,
stirrup pumps all brought into play,
with trams, trains, buses, motor-cars as
the favorite targets so that on these
festival days it is risky to go out
unless you are prepared for repeated
soakings. But among the Myanmar's
themselves it is all carried on with
friendliness and enjoyment, and no one
minds getting soaked, for the hot
weather has already arrived and there is
no fear of catching cold. |
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