Myanmar is marking its annual Thadingyut festival this weekend amid a surge in Covid-19 cases that has forced many to forego the usual festivities.
As the second-most important Buddhist holiday of the year—after Thingyan, the New Year’s water festival—Thadingyut is normally a time of temple visits and lively family gatherings. This year, however, many are celebrating quietly in the privacy of their homes.
Held at the end of the three-month rains retreat, the festival falls on the full moon day of Thadingyut, the seventh month of Myanmar’s traditional lunar calendar. According to custom, it was also on this day that the Buddha returned to earth after teaching the Dhamma to his mother in heaven.
Thadingyut is also known as the festival of lights, and in the suburbs of Yangon, many people put out candles as offerings to the Buddha. The photos here show a pagoda without enclosing walls and houses under the Pan Hlaing bridge in Yangon’s Hlaing Tharyar township.
(Sai Zaw/Myanmar Now)
