Happy Thadingyut Festival

Thadingyut Festival(The Lighting Festival)of Myanmar is the second most popular festival in Myanmar. As a custom, it is held at the end of the Buddhist lent and lasts for three days: the day before the full moon day, the full moon day (when Buddha descends from heaven) and the day after the full moon day.

Thadingyut festival is the celebration to welcome the Buddha’s descent from the heaven after he preached the Abhidhamma to his mother, Maya, who was reborn in the heaven. Buddha’s mother, Maya, died seven days after the Buddha was born and then she was reborn in the T avatimsa Heaven. In order to pay back the gratitude to his mother, Buddha preached Abhidhamma to his mother for one and a half day(It takes three Lenten months for human).

When he was descending back to the mortal world, the ruler of the Tavatimsa Heaven, ordered all the saints and evils to make three precious stairways. Those stairways were made of gold, silver and ruby. The Buddha took the middle one with the ruby.

Buddhists celebrate Thadingyut to welcome the Buddha and his disciples by enlightening and festooning the streets, houses and public buildings with colored electric bulbs or candles, which represent those three stairways.











During Thadingyut Festival, there are zat pwes (Myanmar musical plays), free movie shows and stage shows on most of the streets around the country. There are also a lot of food-stalls, which sell a variety of Myanmar traditional foods and shops, which sell toys, kitchen utensils and other useful stuffs on most of the streets.



Sometime people just walk around in those streets just for sightseeing and have fun. Some people like to play with firecrackers and fire balloons.

Moreover, Thadingyut serves as a time for respect to be intentionally shown to elders in the family, and to those with highly valued positions in Burmese society such as teachers and bosses as well. In return, the elder ones wish good luck for them and give them some pocket money.