April is the first month of Myanmar Luna calander. “Water festival” or “New Year Festival” is held in this month. Water Festival is called “ThinGyan” in Myanmar language. “ThinGyan” is a word derived from Sanskrit that means “Change”. The time of Water-Festival always fall in mid-april.
Normally , the duration of Water Festival last for 3-days in Myanmar. But there are 7-Water Festival days in Dawei Region. The period of Water Festival days in Dawei Region can be separated into 3-parts such as the first 3-days,the middle 3-days and the last day. There are some folk-tales behind the 3-parts of water-festival period in Dawei Region.
The first 3-days are for children and it is called “Child Water Festival”. Folk-tale behind Child Water Festival is interesting . Long long ago , according to the folk-tale , many children in Dawei Region used to prepare several months ahead for Water Festival . One day, “ThaGerMin” , king of celestial beings who may be a parallel of “Zeus” in ancient Greek , knew about it . “ThaGerMin” recognized their enthusiasm and intense desire of participation in Water Festival . And then , “ThaGerMin” gave 3-extra water festival days to the children of Dawei Region . It is a special gift of “ThaGerMin” for the children of Dawei Region . This is how to become “Child Water Festival” for daweyan children .
The middle 3-days are official Water Festival days . There is also a legend behind these middle 3-days . On one occasion , “ThaGerMin” had an argument with “BrahmaMin” , king of the higher celestial abode, over how many day in a week . “ThaGerMin” believed that there were 7-days in a week. On the contrary , “BrahmaMin” believed that there should be 8-days in a week . Neither of them gave up and the dispute grew so heated that the loser permit his head to be decapitated .And they went to a sage called “Kawalamine” who judged in favour of “ThaGerMin” . “ThaGerMin” won the dispute . But there remained the problem of how to dispose of the head “BrahmaMin” .
The head of “BrahmaMin” was the thousand times more dangerous than the famous Gorgen’s head of the Greek legend or the modern H-bomb . Because if it were thrown into the ocean , all the water in the universe would instantly dry up , If it were placed on the land , the earth would be scorched and if it were suspended in the air ,the sky would burn .
So, “ThaGerMin” assigned 7-angles to take care of BrahmaMin’s head under the rule of 1-angle per a year . The head is transferred from the hand of one angle to another among these 7-angles at the end of one year duty period . Myanmar peoples celebrate “Water Festival” when the BrahmaMin’s head changes from the hand of one angle to other , and when the sign of Zodiac move from Pices to Aries . This is just a legend behind the middle 3-days of Water Festival although it is subject to many versions of legend .
There is also a folk-tale behind the 7th day or farewell day or the last day of Water Festival . “ThaGerMin” always visits the earth abode during Water Festival because he gets the permission from his 4-queens to stay at the human abode for 3-days every year . After staying for 3-days , he has to return to his 4-queens . Otherwise he is very happy to stay in human abode . The result is that he forget and leave his smoking pipe in purpose every year. The meaning is that he just looks for the reason to descend to earth to retrieve the smoking pipe . On this day , Some daweyan revelers pour water as extra day or farewell day .This is why and how to become 7-Water Festival Days in Dawei Region .
There are still many features and paraphernalia of “Water Festival” such as giving personal services to older folks , offering the traditional snacks , mass novitiate ceremony , the traditional fish releasing party , and the traditional chorus tournament.
