Thingyan

Held each mid-April across four to five days, Thingyan marks the traditional Myanmar New Year, one of the most anticipated public holidays in the country's calendar. The festival's centrepiece is the symbolic throwing of water, representing the washing away of the previous year's sins and misfortune, with streets in Yangon and Mandalay transforming into lively, music-filled water fights involving buckets, hoses and water guns.

Food carries genuine significance throughout Thingyan, with families and street vendors preparing Mont Lone Yay Paw, glutinous rice balls with a jaggery centre boiled until they float to the surface, a labour-intensive dish so tied to the festival that its preparation often becomes a communal, multi-person effort. Mohinga, Myanmar's beloved rice noodle and fish soup, is served at community feasts throughout the celebrations, alongside Shwe Yin Aye, a cooling coconut milk dessert with jelly and sago pearls, chosen specifically for its refreshing properties during April's intense heat.

Beyond the water throwing itself, Thingyan carries genuine religious weight, with many people practising almsgiving, releasing fish and birds, and paying respect to elders through ritual hair-washing on New Year's Day — proof that beneath the festival's famously chaotic water fights sits a period of real spiritual reflection and communal generosity, expressed as much through shared food as through soaked clothing.