Celebration

My favourite holiday is the Water Festival for many different reasons. In our Burmese language, it is called “Thingyan”, our Burmese new year. We celebrate our Thingyan festival every April 13 to April 16. Our traditional belief is that splashing water is a sign of cleansing, washing away misfortunes of the past year and welcoming a fresh start. Our New Year's day is April 17. On this day, people make lots of donations to temples and communities. There are other elements to the water festival that are enjoyable and worth noting.

In the morning, we usually go to temples to pray and do good things. Our people are friendly and kind to each other. Monks encourage everyone to get a fresh start. In the afternoon, people splash and play in the water using buckets and water guns on each other from April 13 to April 16. We make traditional desserts with friends and relatives to give away to those who come to the temples. One of our famous dessert names is called “Mont Lone Yay Paw” (a sweet ball made of rice powder and coconut ) especially during the Thingyan festival. Another famous food is “Thingyan Rice” (dried fish that is made with spices and onion, mango salad.) We wear our traditional dress “longyi” during our new year days.

Thingyan is not only a joyful festival but also a time for merry-making and doing charitable things. Thingyan is the biggest festival to celebrate for the whole country, Myanmar.