burmese water festival…

as i’m typing this, the whole world is watching THE royal wedding either on tv or live online stream. am i the only one not interest in the extravagant wedding funded by the people of britain? :P

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two weeks back, the burmese had their new year and so the burmese community in my company and another company near our vicinity held a joint-celebration on the rooftop pool area of our accommodation. there was a poster that invited everyone to join in the celebration, so i decided to pop by to see what it was all about.

on the day itself, a weekend in sandland, i was suddenly feeling very lazy to get out of the house. i kept going back and forth in my decision to go up to the pool area. but then i reminded myself the purpose i chose to take up this job in sandland in the first place, that is to gain more exposure, experience and to see more things. so isn’t joining a new year celebration of another culture an exposure and experience for me? that was why in the end, i did drag my ass up to the roof area. and i’m glad that i did! :)

like the thai and a few other cultures, the burmese celebrate their new year in the form of a water festival

 

the food presented…

 

the water war started off quite early…

 

some came with their own weapons of choice…

  a lot of people were pushed into the pool…

 

some waited at the entrance to the pool area to ambush newcomers…

 

i managed to stay relatively dry at first, coz i was holding on to my camera. so they always asked if they can pour water on me. i had to give my consent lar, since they were so polite, right? and they’ll just pour (and not splash) water down my back while i hold my camera out of the way.

   there were dancing and singing, burmese style…

 

discovered the best place to be is behind the electronic equipments! :P

 

can’t really see how wet i was, as i had the good sense of wearing black (as opposed to white, which will become semi-transparent when wet!). my colleague here wasn’t feeling too well, so i guess she’s the only person to leave the party “not-so-wet”.

 

in the end, i was drenched from head to toe, after i decided to put down my camera near the tv and walked over to talk to one of my colleagues. someone sneaked up on me from behind with a big pail of water and poured it onto my head!

 

splashing water during this festival is symbolic to cleansing. that is why everyone is happy to splash and be splashed with water. and it is usually held during summer time in myanmar, so dousing water onto the people around us is really nice and refreshing. but the weather here (at that time) was still very cold, not to mention the wind that was blowing. so most of us were freezing our asses off up there on the rooftop! but it was a good experience… :)