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Festivals: one for each month and sometimes, more
The Myanmar people, made up of 135 ethnic races, enjoy festivities that are part of their culture…. pagoda festivals that are country fairs, novitiation ceremonies when boys enter the monastery with pomp and celebration, the water festival preceding the Myanmar New Year in April, spirit ceremonies that are more about fun than fear, classical dance performances and traditional marionettes plays. The people with their charm and simplicity, their hospitality and friendliness, their eagerness to help and share, are what make Myanmar wonderful.
Most of the festival dates are according to the Myanmar Lunar Calendar, so please check with us.
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Kachin Manaw Festival
Where: Myitkyina, Kachin State
When: Usually in December or January
Duration: 3 days
Traditional festival of the Kachin race, Manaw Festival celebrates the harvest or the New Year. All the Kachin clans will congregate at Myitkyina to celebrate this event. Other races living in the region also join as guests. Dancing and feasting goes on all night.
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Naga New Year
Where: Designated venue
When: Usually in January
Duration: 3 days
One of the most exotic ceremonies where different tribes of Naga walk miles over mountains to meet and celebrate. They have different languages, customs, and costumes.
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Ananda Pagoda Festival
Where: Ananda Pagoda precinct, Bagan
When: Begins one week before the Full Moon Day of Pyatho (in January)
Duration: 10 days
One of the most popular pagoda festivals in the country where villagers come in covered bullock wagons and camp for the duration.
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Harvest festival of Sticky Rice
Where: all over the country
When: the whole month of Tabodwe (in February)
Villages, communities, organisations and individuals cook up pans of sticky rice with peanuts, coconuts, sesame and ginger, to give away in packets to all in the neighbourhood and friends.
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Kekku Pagoda Festival
Where: Kekku Pagoda precinct, Taunggyi Township
When: Begins the day before the Fullmoon Day of Tabaung (late February or early March)
Duration: 3 days
Tens of thousands of Pa O people come in their best costumes to pay homage to the usually deserted pagoda. In the evenings, they sing and perform folk dances. Some comes in bullock carts and make camps under the huge banyan trees.
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Thingyan Festival(Water Festival)
Where: All over the country
When: Begins April 12
Duration: 5 days
Traditional Myanmar New Year Celebrations when people pour water over each other in a symbolic gesture of cleansing oneself of sins from the old year. The most festive places are Mandalay and Yangon.
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Ratanagu Nat Festival
Where: Ratanagu Pagoda, Amarapura Township
When: Begins on the 8th Waxing Moon Day of Wagaung (late July)
Duration: 5 days
This is a festival to honour the mother of the two Nat brothers of Taungbyone, the Popa Goddess who resides on Popa Crest near Bagan.
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Taungpyone Nat Festival
Where: At Taungpyone village near Mandalay
When: Begins on the Full Moon Day of Wagaung (in August)
Duration: 12 days
The most famous of the Nat or Spirit festivals in Myanmar, paying homage to two brother spirits. This event is attended by all mediums and believers especially the traders and merchants who want help for more profits. Colourful dancing, loud music and feasting are part of the rituals.
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Manuha Temple Festival
Where: Bagan
When: Begins the day before the Full Moon Day of Tawtha Lin (August or September)
Duration: 2 days
This is a small but exciting festival, where by tradition the people parade with immense papier-mâché figures in the forms of heroes, mythical creatures, animals and even movie stars. The pagoda trustees and devotees offer rice to hundreds of monks on the morning of the second day.
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Hpaung Daw Oo Pagoda Festival
Where: Inle Lake, Nyaung Shwe Tsp, Southern Shan State
When: Begins on the first Waxing Day of Thadingyut (in October)
Duration: 22 days
Very colourful festival when the four Buddha Statues out of five from Hpaung Daw Oo Pagoda are taken around the lake on a gilded Karaweik barge in the shape of a bird. The procession stops overnight at each of the twenty main villages where the images are welcomed with joyous celebrations. Teams rowing with their legs compete in regattas that are part of the festivities.
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Parade of Lights
Where: Taunggyi
When: Full Moon night of Tazaungmon (in November)
Duration: 1 night
The people of Taunggyi and its environs march through the town with decorated floats and lighted lamps and candles to the Sulamuni Pagoda at the edge of the town.
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Shwezigon Pagoda Festival
Where: Nyaung U, near Bagan
When: Full Moon Day of Tazaungmon to 14th Waning Moon Day of Tazaungmon (in November)
Duration: 15 days
On the morning of the Full Moon Day there is a ritual of offering a filled alms bowl to a thousand and more monks and novices.
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Kyaik Htiyo (Golden Rock Pagoda) Light Festival
Where: Golden Rock Pagoda
When: night of the 31st December
Duration: 1 night
Devotees light nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine lamps on the pagoda platform
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