TODAY

Myanmar is a country with festivals of religious or political significance all the year round. Of these festivals, Thingyan is the greatest occasion for merry making with the largest number of people taking part in it across the country.

In the days of Myanmar kings Thingyan was relatively a low-key affair restricted to the members of the royal family. People in the places courtyard would dribble scented water from silver bowls on the back or nape of one another’s neck: some would apply gentle strokes of Eugenia leaves dipped in perfumed water. But after several generations Thingyan to lose this gentleness and take on the character of boisterous revelry, with people taking up fire hoses for waterguns, and some casualties were reported almost every year. In present-day Myanmar there is only one place where the traditional oncient manner of holding the Thingyan celebrations is still well preserved. This is the Yangon City Hall, where government ministers and members of diplomatic missions spend a good time together joining in the festivities in the ancient way with traditional music and dance on stage.

There is an interesting legend about Thingyan. Once upon a time, Brahma, king of the Celestial Abodes, got into an argument with another equally powerful celestial being over a certain astronomical calculation.

The two agreed to resolve the matter on the condition that whoever lost the argument must be beheaded by the winner. Brahma lost, and he was beheaded. But how to get rid of that severed head of a great celestial being was quite a headache-some-thing potentially a great deal more disastrous than moden-day nuclear waste disposal: if it were dropped down into the sea, the sea would dry up in less than no time: if burief in the ground, it would render all the land nearby infertile for a long period: and if thrown skywards, it would produce long-running drought. None of these options were destrable.

To avoid such catastrophic consequences, female attendants of the Celestial Adobe took upon themselves the duty of holding the brahma’s head, each exactly for one year. Thingyan is said to be an accasion that marks a changeover of holding the Brahma’s head from one female attendant to the next. The story gave the Myanmar language on idiomatic phrase “Brahma’s head” used of a person whom nobody wishes to deal with or do business with because of his or her habit of not making anybody any good. Of such a person, we would say, “You’re a Brahma’s head”-surely, not a delectable epithet.

Thingyan – sar (or Thingyan Almanac) is a fairly large printed chart..

About there months before every Thingyan a publication known as Thingyan-sar comes out. Thingyan-sar (or Thingyan Almanac) is a fairly large printed chart that contains the calendar for the incoming year and a year-round weather forecast for farmers and profitiable information for crop traders based purely on astrological calculation, not on market trends. It also tells people’s fortunes on the basis of their individual dates of birth. If even contains predictions about matters of war and peace in the world at large during the year to come. The chart bears the picture of a celestial being Thagyarmin Sakka, king of devas: but either the word Thagyarmin or the word Sakka Occurs in the chart, which only speaks of Tanwin-ganwe-gyo-min as a celestial being involved. Anyway, most Myanmars are interested in that being, whatever or whoever he is. They believe, rightly or wrongly, that the kind of animal he rides and of things he holds in his hands on his yearly trip down to the human world are symbolic representations of things to come during the course of one year.

Thingyan falls on every 14^th April. The gazette Thingyan holidays start on the 13^th, the pre-Thingyan day, and lasts till the 17^th, the new year day on the Myanmar calendar. Though water throwing formally start on the 14^th, some children would be already up and active early on the pre-Thingyan day with water-pistols, syringes and the rest of all their water-throwing gear, ready to throw water at passersby.

In times past Thingyan was an occasion for some business companies to advertise their goods, They would spend a large sum of money on the floats with decorations that accentuate their individual trademarks. Floats were mostly in the shape of large boats, mythical birds like Karaweik and swans, the like of which you can still see in Mandalay every Thingyan.

There were two kinds of participants in Thingyan. Rovers, mostly men, would go about town in cars. Water throwers, mostly women, would just stay at makeshift pandals waiting to throw water at men in cars. Some women had stages on which they performed dances. Men got their kicks by being squirtey with water by women.

All the floats had music bands with beautiful girls in fashionable Myanmar-style uniforms singing in chorus and dancing in unison. Some floats had a few minutes’ satirical drama performance with a theme of current political or cultural interest. Music, dance forms and drama were all creations by members of the group. Since floats were made for beauty, not for water throwing, they went about town only at dusk when people had ceased playing with water.

Some children would be already up and active early on the pre-Thingyan day with water-postols, syringes…

There were completion pandals for them to stop by and vie with one another in music, dance and dramatic performance and in singing Thangyat, roughly a form of two-lime free verse compositions: the first line of each composition is sung by the leader of the Thangyat group, followed by the rest singing the second line in chorus. In those days when one kyat could buy you four cups of tea, one thousand kyats as a prize for the best Thingyan troupe was quite a large sum indeed, but it cost the throupes just as much in preparing themselves to win prizes.

Towards the evening of the New Year day formal ceremonies are held to usher Year in the new year in an auspicious way. Buddhist monks (mostly 3 or 5 in number) would be invited to solemnize the occasion. The ceremony is held at the junction of street in each and every residential area. The monks would deliver a Dhamma speech and recite paritta relevant to the occasion. At the end of the ceremony people would beat drums or whatever else is available to produce loud sound and noises which they believe could exorcise evil spirits. For the elderly it is a day of shampooing by the young as and act of respect for aged as well as a symbolic gesture of washing away whatever is bad of the old year.