People take part in the celebration of the Tazaungdaing festival in Kalaw Township, Shan state of Myanmar, Nov. 12, 2019. Myanmar celebrated its traditional Tazaungdaing festival on the full-moon day of Tazaungmone, eighth month of Myanmar calendar on Monday. As part of the Tazaungdaing festival celebration, Kalaw in Myanmar's Shan state hosted the traditional Mee-Shaw-Dine (Fire-Pole) Festival. (Photo by U Aung/Xinhua)
YANGON, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar celebrates its traditional Tazaungdaing festival on the full-moon day of Tazaungmone, eighth month of Myanmar calendar on Monday.
On the full-moon day, pagodas across the country are crowded with Buddhist devotees and pilgrims and are hosting well-known traditional festive activity called robe-weaving competitions, known as Matho Thingan competitions.
At the robe-weaving competitions which started in eve of the full-moon day, the contestants have to weave beautiful decorative robes for the Buddha statues and the teams with most beautiful robes are announced winners.
The woven robes are offered to the Buddha statues at the pagodas in early hours of full-moon day.
As part of celebrations, people offer alms, candle lights, joss sticks, flowers and fruits as homage to the pagodas.
On the day, streets are also packed with alm-offering for monks and Satuditha meal serving for people as part of merit-makings.
There is also "Kathina Festival", called "Kahtein-Khin, which is being celebrated by bringing tree-shaped moveable stands, where varieties of offerings and gifts are hung, to the monasteries, accompanied with Myanmar traditional orchestra bands playing music with dance along the journey during the festival.
At night of the full-moon day, Myanmar people have a salad of Mezali, flower-buds of the tree with full of medical values, usually boiled and seasoned with sesames, groundnut, fried garlic and other ingredients, in accordance with the country's traditional belief.
As the Tazaungdaing festival is also called "Festival of Lights", colourful decorative items including light-bulbs and lanterns are seen hanging at almost every houses across the country.
Also, people celebrate the festival by releasing hot air-balloons into the sky, with a belief of an offering to the heavens to ward off evil spirits in Buddhist and Hindu cosmology, which is similar to the Loi Krathong festival celebrated in Thailand.
