Thingyan - Thingyan Eve

Thingyan Eve

The eve of Thingyan, the first day of the festival called a-kyo nei (in Myanmar, အကြိုနေ့), is the start of a variety of religious activities. Buddhists are expected to observe the Eight Precepts, more than the basic Five Precepts, including having only one meal before noon. Thingyan is a time when uposatha observance days, similar to the Christian sabbath, are held. Alms and offerings are laid before monks in their monasteries and offerings of a green coconut with its stalk intact encircled by bunches of green bananas (ငှက်ပျောပွဲအုန်းပွဲ, nga pyaw pwè oun pwè) and sprigs of thabyay or jambul (Syzygium cumini) before the Buddha images over which scented water is poured in a ceremonial washing from the head down. In ancient times Burmese kings had a hairwashing ceremony with clear pristine water from Gaungsay Kyun (lit. Headwash Island), a small rocky outcrop of an island in the Gulf of Martaban near Mawlamyaing.

By nightfall, the real fun begins with music, song and dance, merrymaking and general gaiety in anticipation of the water festival. In every neighbourhood pavilions or stages, with festive names and made from bamboo, wood and beautifully decorated papier mache, have sprung up overnight. Local belles have been rehearsing for weeks and even years, in the run-up to the great event in song and dance in chorus lines, each band of girls uniformly dressed in colourful tops and skirts and garlanded in flowers and tinsel. 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". Large crowds of revellers, on foot, bicycles and motorbikes, and in opentop jeeps and trucks, will do the rounds of all the mandat, some making their own music and most of the womenfolk wearing thanaka and padauk. Floats, gaily decorated and lit up, also with festive names and carrying an orchestra as well as dozens of amorous young men on each of them, will roam the streets stopping at every mandat exchanging songs specially written for the festival including the Thingyan classics that everyone knows, and performing than gyat (similar to rapping but one man leads and the rest bellows at the top of their voices making fun of and criticising whatever is wrong in the country today such as fashion, consumerism, runaway inflation, crime, drugs, AIDS, corruption, inept politicians etc.). It is indeed a time for letting go, a major safety valve for stress and simmering discontent. There will be the usual spate of accidents and incidents from drink driving or just reckless driving in crowded streets full of revellers and all manner of vehicles, as well as drunkenness, arguments and brawling which the authorities have to be prepared for at this time of the year. Generally however friendliness and goodwill prevail along with some boisterous jollity.