Date : Full moon day of Pyatho to 15th Waxing of Pyatho
Location : Bagan
Duration : 15 Days
This is the biggest and most important pagoda festival in central and upper Myanmar. Villagers come in caravans of covered ox-carts and camp out for the duration of this country fair. The Full moon day of the Myanmar month of Pyatho marks the height of the celebrations with one thousand monks from a hundred village in the vicinity arriving to accept offerings of filled alms bowls.
Date : Usually January 14 to 16
Location : Either Lahe or Layshi, Sagaing Region
Duration : 3 Days
The Naga national race comprises many different tribes with their own languages and culture. They meet once a year to sing, dance and feast, dressed in traditional costumes.
Date : 14th Waxing and Full moon day of Tabodwe
Location : Mandalay
Duration : 2 Days
February is the coldest month in Myanmar and at the Maha Muni Pagoda Festival, devotes light bonfires and cook huge pans of sticky rice with ginger, coconut and sesame to offer to monks. In other parts of the country this sticky rice is cooked as a celebration of the harvest and distributed within communities.
Date : Anytime during Tabodwe
Location : Throughout the country
To celebrate the harvest, communities and organizations cook giant pans of sticky rice with ginger, coconut, peanuts and lots of sesame which is wrapped in banana leaves and given to neighbours and friends.
Date : Begin 5th Waxing Moon Dayof Tabodwe
Location : Shwe Settaw, Magwe Region, Central Myanmar
Duration : 11 Days but this holiday site remains open until April
The festival is celebrated at two pagodas which enshrine footprints of the Buddha, The site is on the bank of the Mann Creek, where bamboo cabins are erected every year for revelers to enjoy a cool swim during the heat of summer.
Date : 8th Waxing Moon Day of Tabodwe
Location : Thanlyin , near Yangon
Duration : 10 Days
The nearest pagoda festival of this size closest to Yangon, just 30 minutes away by car. A free traditional puppet show is always part of the festivities.
Date : 3rd Waxing Moon Day of Tabaung
Location : Pakhan, Yayza Gyo Township
Duration : 8 Days
Ko Gyi Kyaw is a happy spirit who loves to drink and gamble and see his workshippers sing, dance and be merry. He is the patron of gamblers. This annual festival in his honour is celebrated in his home town.
Date : Begins 14th Waxing Moon Day of Tabaung
Location : Kekku ancient pagoda complex, near Taunggyi, Southern Shan State
Duration : 3 Days
There are more than 2000 pagodas in the Kekku Pagoda complex, built several centuries ago. It is in a valley surrounded by beautiful scenery. Usually deserted at other times, tens of thousands of members of the Pa-O, Shan and Danu national races arrive by foot or boat to celebrate this festival.
Date : 11th Waxing Moon Day of Tabaung
Location : Pindaya, Southern Shan State
Duration : 8 Days
The Pindaya Caves are filled with thousands of Buddha images of antiquity, without any records of when they were enshrined and by whom. Every year pilgrims from throughout the country celebrate at this festival, which is also attended by the national races of the region.
Date : 1st Waxing Moon Day of Tabaung
Location : The Southwest coast of Myanmar
Duration : 10 Days
This is the only seaside pagoda festival of importance, Part of the route from Yangon is by a pleasant boat ride to Pathein, an interesting delta town famous for its pretty parasols.
Date : Usually 13 to 17 April (New Year’s Day)
Location : Throughout the country
Duration : 4 Days of throwing water and the last day
New Year, is devoted to doing good deeds in all towns and villages. During the water festival, people carry buckets or water pistols to douse anyone seen in public while the more sedate attend meditation sessions or keep the Buddhist precepts. Communities prepare sweets to give to passersby and at night, there is entertainment with songs and dancing by professional and amateur performers.
Date : Begins day after New Year’s Day
Location : Bago
Duration : 7 Days
Classical theatre troupes perform their best at this event in the hope of being booked by agents for the next pagoda festival season. With the advance money they make new costumes and settings and rehearse throughout the monsoon Buddhist Lent period.
Date : Full moon Day of Kason
Location : Pagodas throughout the country
Duration : 10 Days
This ritual commemorates the date more than 2500 years ago when the Buddha gained enlightenment while meditating under a Bodhi tree. Pilgrims pour water on the Bodhi trees in pagoda compounds to keep them fresh in the summer heat of May.
Date : 8th Waxing Moon Day of Nayon
Location : Pakokku, central Myanmar
Duration : 15 Days
This pagoda festival is the most important of its kind for all towns west of the Ayeyarwaddy and produce from the region, such as dried chilli, homespun baskets and tobacco are sold every year at this huge country fair.
Date : Centred around the Full moon day of Waso
Location : Throughout the country
This festival commemorates the time when the Buddha gave first sermon, to five monks. Pilgrims throughout the country gather wild flowers to offer at pagodas, and offer new robes to monks. The Buddhist Lent period is from the Full moon of Waso until the Full moon of Thadingyut.
Date : Ends on the day after the Full Moon Day of Waso
Location : Maha Muni Pagoda compound, Mandalay
Duration : 7 Days
The competitions begins about a month before the last day but the last week features displays of the most skillful teams, which must pass a woven ball of cane around a circle of players without touching it with their hands. They use heads, shoulders, knees, elbows and heels. Points are given for grace and style. In chinlon, no team goes heads on with another in aggressive competition, unique in the world of sports.
Date : 10th Waxing Moon Day of Wagaung
Location : Taung Pyone Village, near Mandalay
Duration : 12 Days
This festival in honour of two Nat (spirit) brothers, Min Gyi and Min Lay is attended by tens of thousands of mediums and worshippers. A different ritual is celebrated each day. Orchestras come to play for the mediums who dance to make the spirits joyful.
Date : 10th Waxing Moon Day of Wagaung
Location : Amarapura, near Mandalay
Duration : 5 Days
This festival honours the mother of the two Nat brothers referred to above. She is the Goddess of Popa and her main shrine is on Popa Crest, near Bagan. She is a powerful spirit and protector of women.
Date : 1st Waxing Moon Day of Thadingyut
Location : Inlay Lake, Southern Shan State
Duration : 18 Days
Four of the five images housed in the Hpaung Daw Oo Pagoda are carried by a golden barge to villagers around Inlay Lake, where they spend the night. Their arrival is greeted with ceremonies and there is much rejoicing while the images are at the villages. Thousands of people from the communities around the Lake and villages in the surrounding mountains carry fruit and flowers and pay homage as the holy barge passes Teams of the Lake’s famous leg-rowers compete in annual boat races.
Date : 1st Waxing Moon Day of Thadingyut
Location : Nyaung U, near Bagan
Duration : 15 Days
On the full moon day, there is a ritual of offering a filled alms bowl to a thousand and more monks and novices. Lacquerware, glazed pots and hand woven cotton blankets are sold by villagers living in the region at this country fair.
Date : One day before the Full Moon Day of Tawthalin and Full Moon Day
Location : Myinkaba village, Bagan
Duration : 2 Days
On the first day, village girls dressed in their best parade with trays of fruit and cakes to offer at the pagoda. During the afternoon, young men parade larger-than-life papier mache figures they have made of heroes, celestials being and animals. At night, they put on dances and plays. The next morning at dawn they offer food at the shrine and also to the monks.
Date : One day before the Full moon day of Thadingyut and the full moon day
Location : Kyaukse, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) southeast of Mandalay
Duration : 2 Days
On the first day, colourfully decorated cloth elephants with two men inside compete in dance competitions. The ‘elephants’ with the best dance performance and behavior wins the gold, food and flowers are offered to the pagoda on the second day.
Date : One day before the Full moon Day of Thandingyut, the Full moon day and the next day
Location : Throughout the country.
Duration : 3 Days
This festival commemorates the time when the Buddha returned to earth after preaching in the abode of celestials during the three months of Lent.He descended at night and devotees greeted Him with lamps and lanterns. People decorate their houses with candles and colour canters to symbolize this event. The Festival of Light marks the end of Lent.
Date : Begins one day before the full moon day of Thadinyut
Location : Mandalay
Duration : 4 Days
The festival coincides with an annual competition among teams of cane-bal (chinlon) players, This sport of keeping a rattan ball off the ground without using the hands is not about one side winning and the other losing and is surely the only sport in the world with such a concept.
Date : After the end of Lent on the Full moon day of Thadingyut
Location : Throughout the country
Duration : Month
Sets of new robes and other offerings such as slippers, umbrellas, alms bowls, food, towels, soap and other necessities are presented to monks. Cash offerings for monasteries are also collected and displayed on wooden frames built in the shape of a tree. New cash notes are folded into bird and flower shapes.
Date : 10th Waxing Moon Day of Tazaungmon
Location : Taunggyi, southern Shan State
Duration : 5 Days
The daytime competitions are for balloons made in animals or bird shapes. At night fire balloons are decorated with strings of lanterns or designs made of lights. On the night of the full moon, Taunggyi townsfolk hold a parade around the town carrying colourful lanterns.
Date : Begins the evening before the full moon day
Location : Shwedagon Pgoda, Yangon and other pagodas throughout the country
Duration : The whole night
On the evening before the full moon day, teams of weavers compete to finish a monk’s robe during the night, to be offered to images at dawn the next day. It is a major event at the Shwedagon Pagoda. This ritual was once practiced in the palace during the time of monarchy and in villages.
Date : Begin Full moon Day of Nadaw
Location : Mount Popa, near Bagan
Duration : 6 Days
The two spirit figures on either side of the Tharaba Gate at Bagan are the brother and sister spirits Lord of the Mountain and the lady golden face who protect home or country. A festival takes place at Mount Popa in their honour.
Date : Evening of December 31
Location : Kyaikhtiyo “Gloden Rock” Pagoda, Mon State
Duration : One evening
On the platform of the Kyakhtiyo “Golden Rock” Pagoda devotes light nine thousand lamps to welcome the New Year and to give thanks to Buddha’s peaceful philosophy. The magical Golden Rock Pagoda, a golden spire, sits on top a huge boulder covered with gold leaf and perched on the edge of a cliff.
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