YEAR ROUND FAMOUS FESTIVALS

As Myanmar is known as happy-go-lucky peoples, they are fond of festivals or ceremonies, which are usually based on the culture or religion. All of them are celebrated traditionally and each festival has its special feature. Since there are twelve months in a year, almost every month has the festival or ceremony. Most of them are worth to see and we can observe the real ways of lives of Myanmar peoples, their culture and customs. In order to participate those special features and activities please refer to the chart of festival for their detailed places and dates. Since many Myanmar festivals are set by lunar calendar, all dates are likely to change a few days back and forth year by year. Different festivals are held throughout the country during the entire year. You may contact Golden Trip Travels for further information.

 

Name of Month	Name of Festival	Time Duration	Celebrating Place
August	Taung-Byone Nat Festival	18-25 August 2010	Madaya, Mandalay Division
September	Yadanagu Nat Festival	02-08 September 2010	Amarapura, Mandalay Division.
October	Dummy Elephant Festival	22 October 2010	Kyaukse Town,  Mandalay Division
	Full Moon Day of Thadingyut	23 October 2010	Through out Myanmar
	Phaung Daw Oo (Inle Lake) Pagoda Festival	09-26 October 2010	Inle Lake, Shan State.
November	Yellow Robe Weaving Contest	20 November 2010	Through out Myanmar
	Fullmoon day of Tasaungmone	21 November 2010	Through out Myanmar
	Hot-air balloons Festival	16-20 November 2010	Taunggyi, Shan State.
	Shwezigon Pagoda Festival	14-21 November 2010	Nyaung Oo, Bagan
December	Christmas Festival	25 December 2010	Through out Myanmar
	Ananda Temple Festival	12-19 January 2011	Bagan – Nyaung Oo
January	Kachin Manaw Festival	6-10 January 2011	Myitkyeenar, Kachin State
	Naga New Year Festival	January 2011	Monywa, Sagaing Division
March	Shwedagon Pagoda Festival	19 March 2011	Yangon, Myanmar
	Novititation Ceremony	March, April 2011	Through out Myanmar
April	Thingyan (Water) Festival & Myanmar New Year Festival	13-17 April 2011	Through out Myanmar
May	Fullmoon Day of Kasone	27 April 2011	Through out Myanmar

^^ 
Top

August (2^nd Waso-Wagaung)

"Waso-Wagaung, the rivers swell with rising billows "so goes the saying. The monsoon is now in full swing and it is a busy time for paddy growers. Fields are ploughed and paddy plants are now ready to be transplanted.
Wagaung is a month for alms-giving by casting lots. According to the custom, communal groups solicit donors to prepare alms-bowls, one or more each, depending on the means and will of the donor. Each bowl is filled with a portion of rice meal with curry and accompaniments like sweets and fruits.
Monks are invited to receive the bowls and lots are cast. Each monk receives whatever bowl his lot falls. Casting of lots does not end there. Each donor is given a number of his bowl and lots are cast again for the winning number. Casting lots for alms-bowls is a festival full of fun and promise. It is called the Maha Dok festival. It all began with a man called Maha Dok, who lived during the life time of the Buddha. The story is dramatized on the stage and it is represented on the precincts of pagoda in paintings and sculptures.

Taung-Byone Nat Festival (18-25 August 2010)

It is situated Mandaya Township situated in Mandalay Division celebrated every year on 29 July and is one of the popular famous Nat festival. According to tradition, the homage-paying festival is held annually to appease the spirits as it is believed that the Nats can fulfill their wishes, protect from ill-fate and danger, and bring good luck, prosperity and progress. Although Myanmar Buddhists are not particularly spirit worshippers, thousands of country folks and town people, their joyous, light-hearted and merrymaking can be found in this particular festival.

September (Wagaung-Tawthalin)

Yadanagu Nat Festival (02-08 September 2010)

It is Amarapura Township in Mandalay Division celebrated its festival beginning form 13th August to 19th August. Known as Mother Taungbyone festival. Most enjoyable because of the rowing boat trip to the site. Spirit dances are rampant.
10th Waning day-attending a nat audience.
11th Waning day having a royal bath.
12th Waning day-ascending the throne.
13th Waning day-daughter of Mahagiri reels on the ground in grief.
14th Waning day-cutting down htein trees.

^^ 
Top

October (Tawthalin-Thadingyut)

Thadingyut, the seventh month of the Myanmar calendar, marks the end of lent. Monsoon is on the way out and the skies are clearing. Sunny days are here to stay.
The three day lights festival, namely the day before the full moon, the full moon day and the day after, will be those of music, dances and fun. Illuminations are there to celebrate the anniversary of the Buddha's return from the celestial abode where he had spent the lent teaching the gods above His Law.
Streets, houses and public buildings are illuminated and festooned with colored electric bulbs. One feature of the festival in small towns and village is see-mee lighting: small earthen bowls are filled with sessamum oil and a piece of cotton is soaked in each bowl and lighted. These lighted oil bowls are placed on the terraces of pagodas.

Thadingyut is not only a season of festivals and rejoicings, but also a time for remembering those to whom we owe respect and gratitude. On the third day of the festival, people go round paying calls. It is "open house" for many homes. Older people have light refreshments ready for the young visitors. They give away sweets and small change to children. Young people bring small gifts like candles, fruits and cakes but it is not compulsory. Paying respects is accomplished by the act of kadaw, genuflection.
During the Thadingyut season Burmese Buddhists go round paying respects to Parents, teachers, elderly relatives and friends. This reciprocal action is called the "erasing of the slate", which is the same as "burying the hatchet". After this act of "erasing the slate", friends and kinsmen can start with a "clean slate" with nothing but love and kindness. It is one of the Myanmar traditions for the senior or elderly persons in the streets or residential quarter to receive gifts and respects from the younger people of the community.

Dummy Elephant Festival (22 October 2010)

The unique and exotic elephant dance held at Kyaukse, a small town not far from Mandalay. It is 2-day festival ending October 03. From 14th Waxing day until Fullmoon day, numerous life-size dummy elephants sing and dance to the accompaniment of music. It is a dance that requires precise rhythm and timing in order for the elephant dancers to maintain uniformity inside the elephant figure.

Full Moon Day of Thadingyut (23 October 2010)  

To mark the day Lord Buddha came down from the Celestial Abode after spending 3 months of the Buddhist Lent there. Buddha's return is remembered and commemorated throughout the country with colorful illuminations

Phaung Daw Oo (Inle Lake) Pagoda Festival (09-26 October 2010)

Tuanggyi Tazaungdaing Festival is held annually and is accompanied by communal Kahtein Padethapin (meaning “tree of plentiful item’) procession, Mathoe Thingan or Non-Stale robe-weaving ceremony, procession with lighted candles and hot-air balloon competition.

It is celebrated on 19th September to 06th October. Four Buddha statues are ceremoniously tugged clockwise around the lake on the royal barge by leg-rowing boats. They return home on 3rd waning day. Leg-rowing boat races are held throughout the event.

November (Thadingyut -Tazaungmone)

After four months of rain comes a succession of festive months starting with Thadingyut lights festival. Come Thazaungmone, still another lights festival even more elaborate with the usual trimmings of music, dances and shows. It is rather convenient, so say fun-loving Myanmar that the paper lanterns and decorations are still in fairly good condition to be put up again in three week's time.

Though Tazaungdine lights festival began in the times immemorial as a folk ritual, it is regarded today as and essentially. Buddhist festival, the month is the time for offering robes to the monks. There is no restriction whatsoever when robes should be offered to the monks. This is a special time, the time, when after long months of seclusion in the monasteries, monks make preparations to go on trips to see and pay respects to their teachers and parents, now that the ban on travel (only for monks ) has been lifted.

At such a time, many monks are in need of new robes. Offering of robes and other gifts, in this season are made not to any individual monk but to the Order as a whole so that the needy ones shall get the robe. Although such other acts are, in their own way, meritorious deeds, the fruition is not as great as the act of giving to the Order of monks or the Sangha. According to the rule a group of monks who have spent the lent under a senior monk in a monastery is eligible as an institution to accept the gifts called the Kahtina gifts. Kathein offering is considered one of the most meritorious deeds.

Yellow Robe Weaving Contest (20 November 2010)

The highlight of Kathein offering is the weaving of non-stale robes so called because the robes are not allowed to go stale, that is to say, they are woven within the space of the light. Even today this weaving of the robes is organized in rural and urban areas. On this particular full moon eve groups of young women take part of competition held on the platforms of the pagodas. Music, dance and prizes for the best weaver who can finishes earliest and best add colour and enjoyment to the festival. The weaving starts at sunset and finishes at dawn when the finished robes are offered to the Buddha and His Order, of course the stupes and images representing the Buddha. The tradition of weaving the non-stale robes is still carried on at some of the pagoda in Yangon. The best spot to watch Myanmar puppet. Pilgrimage and holiday outings on country oxcarts can be seen.

Fullmoon day of Tasaungmone (21 November 2010)

Another festival of light held on the full moon day throughout the country. Home and streets are illuminated and Buddhists are provided robe and various requisites at Kathein (ceremony of offering robes to monks). On this particular full moon day number total 9999 candles are ceremoniously lit at mid night. Visitors are served with mixed salad of maezali buds, believed to possess powerful, magical and medicinal properties if eaten at this time.
 

Hot-air balloons Festival ( 16-21 November 2010)

Hot-air balloons are released day and night, competing over their beauty and the altitude they gain. Day-time flying is meant for competition of animal figures and night-time is for beautiful fireworks. It is celebrated on 08th November to 12th November.

Shwezigon Pagoda Festival (14-21 November 2010)

One of the highlights of the season in Bagan (Nyaung U) is the Shwezigon Pagoda festival celebrated on the grounds around the hill where the great pagoda stands. It is impossible to miss the pagoda festival. The grounds are filled with the rows of bamboo and thatch huts which are market stalls or show rooms. There are also merry-go-round and ferries wheels.

Product from all over the country, from the arid plains of central Myanmar, northern hill tracts, lowlands and the delta areas of the south, are there-baskets, mats, trays and boxes made of cane or bamboo or palm leaves; cotton wool quilts, fillings for cushions and mattresses, cotton rugs, bags and hand-woven textiles in colorful patterns; paper Mache dolls, some of them grotesque yet attractive; glazed earthen-wares, pots-vases, ash trays; laquerware useful as well as beautiful.

This part of the festival grounds is a wonderland where you may wander and browse for hours and come away finally laden with beautiful things, most of then useless.

Candles and fireworks are carried in procession before offering to the pagoda on 14th Waxing day. Alms bowls are offered to monks, as they do at Ananda festival on Full moon day. Typical pilgrimage and holiday outings on country bullock carts can be seen.

^^ 
Top

December (Tazaungmone -Nadaw)

Day and sunny days with a touch of coolness in the evenings begin with the month of Tazaungmone. By Nat-taw, cold season is in full swing, in lower Myanmar towns like Yangon the weather is just pleasant, not too hot or cold, but in upper Myanmar towns and northern hill areas it is really cold.

Agrarian people in the countryside have a spell of leisurely days now that the fields are golden with ripening grain. The air is filled with music and song as a succession of local pagoda festivals and ritual fests on in the neighborhood. Ritual feasts in honour of nats, traditional family gods, are celebrated during this month.

Christmas Festival (25 December 2010)

Throughout the country Christianity is the second largest religion in Myanmar after Buddhism.

^^ 
Top

January (Nadaw-Pyatho)

Pyatho is completely free from rains. Just sunny days and cool, dew-drenched nights. The festival season, ushered in by Thadingyut (October) – the end of Lenten austerities, monsoon and hard grinding work in the fields, - is on full swing. Most of the pagoda festivals are celebrated during the month.

Ananda Temple Festival (12-19 January 2011)

This pagoda is situated at Bagan-Nyaung Oo in Mandalay Division and the festival is celebrated from 23rd December to 07th January. Mostly are typing Myanmar's and the surrounding villages participate by bringing their village's commodities and others to sell in the temporary market. It is quite interesting while you go around for shopping. The grounds are filled with the rows of bamboo and thatch huts which are market stalls or show rooms. There are also merry-go-round and ferries wheels.

Product from all over the country, from the arid plains of central Myanmar, northern hill tracts, lowlands and the delta areas of the south, are there-baskets, mats, trays and boxes made of cane or bamboo or palm leaves; cotton wool quilts, fillings for cushions and mattresses, cotton rugs, bags and hand-woven textiles in colorful patterns; paper Mache dolls, some of them grotesque yet attractive; glazed earthen-wares, pots-vases, ash trays; lacquer-ware useful as well as beautiful.
This part of the festival grounds is a wonderland where you may wander and browse for hours and come away finally laden with beautiful things, most of then useless.
The festival usually starts in the first or second week of October and takes 15 days to complete.
 

Kachin Manaw Festival (6-10 January 2011)

The Kachin, or Jinghpaw, as commonly known in their language is one of the largest national races of Myanmar. The Kachin are predominantly Christian and the animist ceremonies of their ancestors are now celebrated as part of upholding their culture heritage. They celebrate the Kachin New Year, a good harvest or the unity of the different tribes and clans gathering at the Manao Festival to feast and dance together. It is a gentle and slow group dance without touching even at the fingertips. This festival is celebrated every year in Myitkyina, capital of Kachin State from 9th January to 10th January in front of their traditional and symbol, singing with string musical instruments and buffalo harms dancing with their national dresses and also enjoy with Kaung yay fermented from sticky rice.

Naga New Year Festival ( January 2011)

It is celebrated in Chin State on 13th January to 15th January. They are ethics known as Naga hill tribe people. Although most people have heard about Naga tribes there is some who have seen them and only a few who have been to their area. In this particular day you will see the most unique Nagas gathering from the entire region with festive mode. They worship to their Lords by scarifying the animals. Their unique traditional dance, martial music and cults of animism are eventually interesting. Some also have tiger fangs hanging from their necklaces.

^^ 
Top

March (Tabodwe-Tabaung)

The last month of the Myanmar calendar falls in March. Days are getting warm and each morning the singing of the birds greets the new day. Nights are cool and pleasant especially in moonlight when gosssamere wisps of mist lend an ethereal touch to the atmosphere.
Tabaung is a month of pagoda festivals. Each month of the Myanmar calendar is marked by a festival and Tabaung festival is marked by the building of sand stupas. Not content with having festivals in honour of the existing local pagodas, people have to build pagodas of their own, even if they are ephemeral ones built of sand.

Shwedagon Pagoda Festival (19 March 2011)

One of the highlights of the season in Yangon is the Shwedagon Pagoda festival. It is impossible to miss the pagoda festival. The sight of numerous monks who come in boats to receive food offerings is striking view.

April (Tabaung-Tagu)

Thingyan (Water) Festival & Myanmar New Year Festival (13-17 April 2011)

The Myanmar New Year falls on the second week of April. The New Year is ushered in by three days of Water Festival. According to folklore, Thangyarmin, king of the celestials, will be on a visit to the human abodes for three days.

It is celebrated to welcome Myanmar New Year for four days throughout the country during the second week of April. It also marks the end of the old year and beginning of the new. Young people gather together to sing and dance, and to joyfully throw water on each other.

During the Thingyan Carnivals decorative floats and water throwing pandals are seen everywhere in towns and cities alike. If you do not mind getting wet, this high-spirited festival is one that you should not miss.

Buddhists young and old alike spend the day performing meritorious deeds such as feeding and releasing animals, offering to monks, paying homage to elders etc.

The festival falls on 12th to 16th April annually

Novititation Ceremony (March, April 2011)

In the Buddhist way of life, it is usual for a mail child to become a novice once or more in his lie. Before the novitation instructions by a monk in Pali and Myanmar passages to Learn. Yellow Robes and other necessities of novice must be kept ready. One day ahead or on the appointed day a show procession is made, where the Shin Laung, a boy who will become a novice is allowed to ware princely dresses and embroiled head turban, riding on horseback, shaded under gilded umbrella and girls carrying gifts for the monks.
Nowadays, people living in towns, usually make show processions by cars and where as the Shans in Inle Lake use the boats.
After that, all the participants are to gather at the respective monastery, for having the head shave, where parents or elders hold a clean white sheet to receive the boys hair.
Then the boy is lead to the monk who is to be his teacher, with a roll of Yellow Robes cup in both hands. H e is to beg permission in Pali to become a novice. Then the monk invests him with the Robes. The boy is to stay in the monastery for few days, which he has to keep the ten precepts.

^^ 
Top

May (Tagu-Kasone)

Myanmar New Year begins with spays of cool water shower-ing on friends with goodwill and loving kindness. Come Kason, the second month of the year, and once again water is poured this time, on the sacred tree, the Boddhi tree, the tree of enlightenment.

The full moon of Kason month is a three-fold anniversary: the birth of Siddatha, the Buddha to-be. His attaining of Enlightenment at the foot of the Bodhi tree, and the passing of the Buddha into Nibbana. Such episodes in the Buddha's life live on to this day, after 25 centuries, in poems, songs, plays, painting, scriptures, and last but not least, in the hearts of the Buddhists. Emphasis is laid on the paying of respects to the sacred tree, in remembrance of the Buddha's Enlightenment.

Fullmoon Day of Kasone (27 April 2011)

Pouring water the Sacred Bo Tree symbolizes the Birth, Enlightenment and Passing away of Buddha. It is an important Buddhist holiday and belles go in procession to the pagoda grounds throughout the country with pots of water and thousands of oil-lamps or candles to be lit.

^^ 
Top