 |
| (Photo – A light festival on the eve, I illuminated with candles at the front of my grandparents house. I missed them so much. I also missed many happy memories which now became history since many years went by.) |
Thadingyut falls on the seventh month (October) of the Burmese calendar. I wondered the spirit of Thadingyut was still sparkling in the heart of the people.
…..Yesterday Is But A Dream!
I remembered my childhood days spent on three days of light festival. My mother bought a lot of candles for us to lighten our nights of Thadingyut. Trees, flowers, branches, plants, grasses, vases or lawn in our garden were victims of the places for keep temporarily our candles lighted. I loved to see our garden brightening with our candles and bulbs. I was watching our garden until candles were drawing to cease. Wherever I wandered at the nights of the Thadingyut, I saw streets, houses and public buildings were illuminated with coloured electric bulbs or candles.
We celebrated this event as to have a light festival on the eve, the actual day and the day after of the full moon day. These three days were especially for children enjoying with the candles or playing around among the colored electric bulbs. I still remembered we went together walking through the festival in the streets which held near our house. The streets were filled with Burmese foods or Burmese country made products. We all enjoyed and wandered browsing for hours in the wonderland. But those wonderful Thadingyut festivals were disappeared many years ago. I still missed them so much.
In my childhood, I remembered there was no house left such as every house and street wherever we saw were full of lights and beam. We neighbors children competed each other with which house was the best illuminated. We calculated how many candles we lighted for today and we enjoyed our happiness together. Moreover we shot fireworks and watched everybody surprised and frightened faces. Yes, these memories were like yesterdays.
I also remembered when the Thadingyut holiday was nearer, our teacher requested how we spend our Thadingyuts and write an essay about it. It was an exciting event to every student. We never missed such a happy Thadingyut festival.
Thadingyut is coming to town!
I saw many colourful electric bulbs sold in the markets. People enjoyed them with delight. Children chose the attractive colorful bulbs and asked their mother to buy it. I also saw many wonderful lanterns in the stalls too. The patterns or the drawings on the lanterns were very attractive and colourful. Their designs seemed came from the Chinese traditional style. I rarely see beautiful Burmese traditional drawings in them. But I loved to buy those colourful electric lanterns. We had no other choice. These lanterns were the choice of this generation. They were became symbols of Thadingyut festival!
I rarely found many flying balloons in the dark sky. It was once popular in Thadingyut festivals. I remembered they seemed like a star which moved slowly and moving far above the ground. Although houses and streets were illuminated with lanterns or electric bulbs or candles, it was less numbered than of the time when I was in childhood.
I heard the sound of fireworks which exploded sometimes somewhere so far continuously like a sound of gun shot or bomb very loudly. It was more and more louder than of last, last years. These ‘bangs’ sounds seemed welcomed to Thadingyut. I have already told you there were no more Thadingyut festivals in streets. The spirit of Thadingyut seemed to be remembered in the heart of the people by that sound of fireworks? These sounds of banging fireworks only remained to our Thadingyut memories? The less the candles illuminated in houses or streets, the more the sound of fireworks bang in our Thadingyut days.
Tomorrow is Another Day
Well…..Who knows? The warmest and the most joyful Thadingyut will coming to our town again? I will think of it all to-morrow, at our Yangon city. After all, tomorrow is another day……..