CULTURE
Novitiation ceremony is the unique characteristic in Myanmar. This ceremony usually celebrates during the school holidays, mostly in summer holidays at March & April before the water festival.
In the Myanmar tradition the boys are compulsory to enter the Buddhist order for a week or more.
Novitiation ceremony involving a procession around. Jedi on the first day all men dressed as a groom. In the afternoon, their heads will be shaved and they have access to the command specified. On the same day or the next, will have a feast for monks and guests. If the sisters and novices have been piercing their ears at the same time, they also have an important participant in the celebration.
To pay homage to the Buddha they go to a famous pagoda at their town, parade clockwise to the pagoda, the parents take place at the front, the fathers carry the Alms bowl and fan and the mothers carry the casket contain robes.
Next to them are Monks-to-be and Novices-to-be with their attended holding Gold umbrella over them and a group of girls carry decorated offertories follow them in line. Musical troop and their merry making dancer make all the funs and tease the girls.
As a novice he has to observe eight precepts and learn the Buddha teachings from his preceptor.
TRADITION
THANAKA
One of the first thing that the first time visitors notice sooner or later is the faces of the women of all ages and children coating with yellowish white substance.
The guide explain them proudly about the "Thanaka" which is the beauty secret of Myanmar women. In the bedroom of a Myanmar woman on the floor besides the dressing table there has an 8" long Thanaka wood cutting, a flat circular surfaced whetstone or grind stone and a small water bottle with a pore on the lid.
PUPPET SHOW
Puppetry is the most popular show in Myanmar arts and culture.
puppets are beautifully dressed in lavish embellishment with gilded materials and semi
precious gems, depends on their characters.
Puppet shows usually take place at pagoda festivals, which are like country fairs.
Marionette theatre is now mostly confined to tourist venues in Yangon, Mandalay and Bagan.
THTA-MANE FESTIVAL
This country - wide traditional festival celebrates on or around full-moon day of Tabaung in Myanmar calendar among the Myanmar community.
The celebration on a good harvesting, although the name actually comes from the food made of glutinous rice cooked with groundnuts, coconut shreds, sesame oil, ginger and garlic traditional eaten at this time or year. It is cooked in water and then in oil in large, concave iron cooking pots.