March 19, 2025 | 04:36 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Thingyan Festival will be held at Inle Lake, Nyaungshwe, Myanmar. As quoted from Antara, the festival will last four days, from April 13 to April 16, 2025. One of the festival's main goals is to make Nyaungshwe a popular destination.
The vast 489,721-hectare Inle Lake is one of the main tourist attractions in Myanmar. This year's Thingyan Festival will feature various entertainment programs with a number of new additional activities still under discussion.
Get to Know the Thingyan Festival
The Thingyan Festival is the name for the Myanmar New Year. As quoted from the website Myanmar Immigration, this festival is the largest and most popular water festival in Myanmar. Originally, this festival was a celebration during the reign of King Anawrahta in the 11th century. At that time, the celebration was to honor Buddha and his teachings. The festival also became a time for people to cleanse their souls and start the new year with purity.
Over time, this festival evolved into the New Year celebration and was named Thingyan. The word Thingyan comes from the Sanskrit word Sankranti, which means the transition of the sun from one zodiac sign to another.
Traditionally, the people of Myanmar make scented water from various types of flowers and leaves and then put it in bowls or jars in front of their houses. Each day, they use different types of water from different leaves.
The celebration lasts for four days in mid-April. The festival starts with Maha Thingyan, the Water Festival, where people splash water on each other to cleanse away sins and misfortunes from the previous year. The tradition of splashing water originates from the ancient Buddhist custom of washing the Buddha statue during the New Year celebration. After getting wet, people usually bask in the sun to dry their clothes while enjoying leisure time.
As music begins to play at night, the festival becomes even livelier with various activities such as dancing, singing, and fortune-telling. The people of Myanmar wear bright-colored clothes while carrying water guns and buckets to play with water together.
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