Burmese: သင်္ကြန်, Khmer: បុណ្យចូលឆ្នាំថ្មី; Lao: ສົງການ; Thai: สงกรานต์, Tamil: சொங்க்ரான், Photo : Edo Vader |
The dates of the festival are observed as the most important public holiday throughout Burma and are part of the summer holidays at the end of the school year. Water-throwing or dousing one another from any shape or form of vessel or device that delivers water is the distinguishing feature of this festival and may be done on the first four days of the festival. However, in most parts of the country, it does not begin in earnest until the second day. Thingyan is comparable to other new year festivities in Theravada Buddhist areas of Southeast Asia such as Lao New Year, Cambodian New Year and Songkran in Thailand.
New Year Donation. |
By nightfall, the real fun begins with music, song and dance, merrymaking and general gaiety in anticipation of the water festival. They wear fragrant thanaka - a paste of the ground bark of Murraya paniculata which acts as both sunblock and astringent - on their faces, and sweet-scented yellow padauk blossoms in their hair. The padauk (Pterocarpus macrocarpus) blooms but one day each year during Thingyan and is popularly known as the "Thingyan flower"