Myanmar Thin Gyan ( Or ) Burmese New Year Water Festival

Thin Gyan (Burmese: ; MLCTS:) is the Burmese New Year Water Festival and usually falls around mid-April 12th Or 13th (the Burmese month of Tagu). It is celebrated over a period of four to five days(13.Apr to 16.Apr  OR  12.Apr to 16.Apr) culminating in the new year. The dates of the Thingyan festival are calculated according to the traditional Burma lunisolar calendar and hence have no fixed Roman calendar equivalent although it often coincides with Easter. 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 the more widely known Songkran in Thailand.

History Of Thin Gyan

The origin of Thingyan, however, is not Buddhist but Hindu. The King of Brahmas called Arsi lost a wager to the King of Devas, Śakra (Thagya Min), who decapitated Arsi as agreed but put the head of an elephant on the Brahma's body who then became Ganesha. The Brahma was so powerful that if the head were thrown into the sea it would dry up immediately. If it were thrown onto land it would be scorched. If it were thrown up into the air the sky would burst into flames. Sakra therefore ordained that the Brahma's head be carried by one princess devi after another taking turns for a year each. The new year henceforth has come to signify the changing of hands of the Brahma's head.^[1]