Several Southeast Asian countries began their annual traditional water festival celebrations today, but after a devastating earthquake last month, Myanmar is missing out on the joyous holiday festivities.
The holiday is a time for celebration during the hottest time of year in that part of the world. In Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar, millions of people participate in a game where friends and everyone else are splashed with water, as well as in more solemn ceremonies to pay respect to the elderly.
Temperatures in that part of the world at this time of year often exceed 40 degrees Celsius. Many who have moved to the cities for work return to their native villages and towns to see their families. The celebration takes place over several days, culminating in the traditional New Year.
The holiday is historically tied to the seasonal movement of the sun, critical for largely agrarian societies. The water games originated as a ceremony to welcome the rainy season. A traditional ritual that many still practice involves cleaning Buddha images and washing the hands and feet of elders.
In Myanmar, the holiday is called Thingian. But this year, the country is recovering from a 7,7-magnitude earthquake on March 28 that devastated large parts of the country, killing more than 3.600 people.
A few days after the earthquake, the military government announced that this year's festival would be held in a more solemn atmosphere and would not include joyous singing and dancing, due to the nationwide period of mourning.
People are free to celebrate privately, and festival-related items, including water guns, are sold in malls and shops. However, there is no government-organized party.
People's Square, the main venue for celebrations in Yangon, will not host the festival this year, but the traditional charity feast will be held without music and dancing. In Yangon, the city center near City Hall was quiet, in contrast to many past occasions.
The only visible signs of celebration were children playing with water in the streets of residential areas, and elderly people going to Buddhist monasteries and pagodas for traditional prayers.
In neighboring Thailand, where the holiday is called Songkran, the holiday is celebrated in a cheerful atmosphere, visible, for example, in the third season of the popular TV series "White Lotus." But there is a darker side to the holiday: Thailand already has one of the highest traffic death rates in the world, and this increases further during Songkran due to the large number of people on the move, often drunk.
Cambodia, where the holiday is called Choul Chnam Tmei, and Laos, where it is called Pi Mai Lao, have similar celebrations, but generally on a smaller scale and less noisy than those in Thailand.
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