(Updated video on October 2022.)
Come
Tanhsaungmone(Tahsaungtaing), the 8th month of the Burmese calendar,
another lights festival even more elaborate with the usual trimming of music,
dances, and shows. Tanhsaungmone festival is the lights festival in the month
of tanhsaungmone(November). The month is the time for offering special robes
and other gifts to the monks.
In
this month, 10th of November is the full moon day of Tanhsaungmone.
So there are three days of lights festival, namely the day before the full moon
day, the full moon day and the day after. Colored electric bulbs and lighting
candles are in the streets, houses and public buildings.
‘An outburst of energy in meritorious deeds under cloudless sky
and myriad lights.’ quoted from the
Burmese poem found in the Burmese calendar which was drawn by famous artist U
BaKyi.
‘The Medicine Night’
The
day after the full moon day of Tanhsaungtaing (11th November of this
year) is the significant day of Burmese people. We believe that it is the day all
the stars are surely in the sky. No star can be hidden! It represents that what
we eat in this night effect our health even the water you drink an effective
medicine for us.
So,
to have more effective medicine, we must eat ‘Mei Za Li buds’ (natural buds
from plant) by the instruction of the astrologer for what time we will have to
eat. I remembered last year of Tanhsaungtaing, on the day after the full moon
day, we ate ‘Mei Za Li’ at 11:35?PM by the instruction of the astrologer. The
original taste was very bitter. So we mixed with lime, onion, salt, sugar,
sesame-oil and other materials to have a best taste. We believed that it would
be good for our health for the coming year. We have to buy this thing as
quickly as possible in the market on that day because it would be out of sold
for everybody was going to have it!
There
were songs and poems that honored and praised the day after full moon day. Some
love-song was filled with romance; ‘I miss you especially tonight more than any
other starry nights’ or ‘Why we two cannot be together tonight even all the stars can meet
in the sky?’.
(photo-above-(left)-
Illustration of Tahsaungtaing festival in Burma. It was from the calendar
drawn by famous artist U BaKyi(1912 –
2000).
(right)
– What you see ‘Mei Za Li’ buds that we must eat, good for health especially at
the night of the day after the full moon day.)
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