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| maungyit |
My
grandmother said ‘It is quite impossible for a Myanmar to survive without
knowing on which day of the week he or she was born. Without this knowledge,
one would not even know on which day of the week to have a haircut or to
shampoo one’s hair.’ She also quoted from Shway Yoe’ writings that you must
remember the day that it is unlucky to wash your hair or to have a haircut on a
Monday or a Friday or a birthday. ‘A Burman’s birthday, it must not be
forgotten, occurs once a week.’ When a Myanmar says ‘birthday’, he means the
day of the week on which he was born.
Our
birthday was Thursday (I and my twin brother). So Thursday, Friday and Monday
are our unlucky days for washing our hair or to have our haircut. It is a
Burmese custom or Burmese tradition of ancient wisdom. We obeyed it since our
childhood. I noticed that some hair-cutting saloons always closed on Monday or
Friday. Most of the people wanted to be careful about to follow this
traditional customs.
‘Modern
World’
One
day I had a plan to have my haircut. My cousin advised that I could choose the
days for haircut on Monday or Friday for money saving. I did not understand at
first. I believed for a long time that these days are about to obey for our
Burmese custom, not to have a haircut. She said the hair-cutting saloons now
discounted the fees for haircuts on these two days of the week, because there
were fewer customers they had on Monday and Friday. So they reduced the price
for haircut on Monday and Friday. So it made their customers come especially on
these two days. It was because of their reduced price. What a surprise!
‘Epilogue’
I
now realized that sometimes I found more customers in some hair-cutting saloons
on Monday or Friday. I felt that our Burmese tradition now became disappeared
for having saving money! I am afraid some young people had grown to have
knowledge that Monday and Friday were lucky days because the hair-cutting
saloons reduced the price for their haircut? It seemed quite good for the
economics view. It gained more customers on especially these two days of the
week. But from the traditional point of view, our customary wisdom will now
become faded away.
--
'J'
'J'
You are a prolific blogger. I admire you.
ReplyDeleteHere in Canada, one does not know which day he or she was born. I told them that the Myanmar people name their children on the day the children were born. They are amaze when I told them that children do not have to take their father's name. That of course has changed too, I guess. It is quite stylish to add one's father's name.
Happy Blogging!
Aunty Kaythwe