Thingyan Water Festival or New Year Celebration 2025 in Myanmar

Thingyan Festival, which lasts for four days in April, marks the end of the hot, dry season and the imminent arrival of the New Year in Burma. Traditionally, Burmese celebrate this holiday on the streets with the fun water fights, uniting children and adults.

The mass water spectacle is intended to wash away all the bad luck and bad deeds and sins of the past year. The major events of the Water Festival occur on the main pedestrian streets of Myanmar's cities. The sidewalks are occupied with special bamboo platforms, from which the "enthusiasts" of Thingyan pour and spray water on passers by. Roads also become the playgrounds of water "battles." Powerful jets from water guns and buckets soak people from trucks, SUVs, and cars. Everyone is fair game except for the elderly and clerics.

With the advent of the Burmese New Year, the water "orgy" is terminated. On this day, people show mercy by releasing fish and birds into the wild, as well as treating the monks with a lavish feast. Such celebrations can be also seen in neighboring Buddhist countries such as Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia.

Lots of places around Myanmar host splendid celebrations. Especially impressive festivities take place in Yangon known for its outstanding parades at the Kandawgyi Lake and Kabaraye road. Another location to experience Myanmar Water Festival is in Mandalay. Local Rakhine people mark the holiday with scooping water up from a longboat and throwing it at revelers.