YANGON, April 10 (Xinhua) -- People in Myanmar are busy preparing for celebrating the country's traditional Thingyan water festival as it is drawing near.
Inherited from ancient time, Myanmar celebrates traditional water festival, also known as Thingyan, annually to welcome new year as other Southeast Asian countries such as Songkran in Laos and Thailand, Chaul Chnam Thmey in Cambodia. Moreover, it is also celebrated in China's Yunnan province by local Dai ethnic nationality.
In most traditional way, people gently sprinkle water on one another to make clear the moral impurities from old year.
Among Myanmar's 12 seasonal festivals throughout the year, the Thingyan water festival represents the grandest which is believed to bring peace and prosperity to everyone.
The Thingyan water festival will run on April 13 to 16, and the Myanmar new year will fall on April 17.
All government offices, private businesses and banks will be closed for five days for the holiday.
In Myanmar, some Buddhist people go to pagodas and monasteries for making religious good deeds and making traditional donations called Satuditha to people of all classes.
This year's Thingyan water festival will be celebrated in a more traditional way across the nation.
In recent years, influenced by western culture, Thingyan festival had been celebrated in a modern way with stage shows, electronic music and modern dancing.
This year, traditional dance performances and Thingyan music will be featured during the festival instead.
Meanwhile, to ensure the safety, the regional authorities will deploy 8,000 security personnel during the water festival in the biggest city of Yangon.
Police patrol vehicles will be on stand-by in various areas and CCTV cameras will be installed in crowded areas and in popular resting places.
According to the authorities, there will be 22 large, 10 medium, and 27 small water throwing pandals in the commercial city.
Regional courts will be open in Yangon daily during the festival to enable swift action of cases and complaints.
Meanwhile in Mandalay city, the ancient capital of Myanmar, people will enjoy walking water festival seeing over 30 water-throwing and traditional dancing performance pandals around Mandalay Palace's gates and across the city.
Traditional mobile dance performance will roll around the city with large motor vehicles.
