WHENEVER Thadingyut Festival comes around children get excited because it means it’s holiday time and the three-month Buddhist rains retreat, or lent season, has come to an end.

In October a 10-day vacation to celebrate the Festival of Light is held and the streets fill with vendors selling toys, fireworks and lanterns in the lead-up to the festival itself, a three-day celebration that this year occurs from October 25 to 27.

Legendary and mythical, the story of Thadingyut goes that Lord Buddha, in his seventh year after attaining enlightenment, spent the whole three-month lent period in the celestial abode of Tavatimsa. There he delivered the sermon of Abhidhamma, part of the Buddhist canon, to all celestial beings, especially his mother, who died a week after delivering him and was reborn as a celestial being.

“You see, my son, even our Lord didn’t forget to repay the debt of gratitude to his mother he had owed,” mothers tell their children, hoping that one day their own son will repay the debt of gratitude like Buddha.

Young Buddhists are frequently reminded that their parents raised them and why it is important to repay that debt by fulfilling their wishes throughout life.
While parents repeat this point again and again, children are more interested in the holidays and the festival itself. More importantly, children badger their parents into buying new clothes, lanterns and fireworks.

However, even children understand the importance of Thadingyut and go with their parents to visit grandparents and elderly family members to pay their respects.

During Thadingyut, almost every household is busy hosting guests or visiting others.

But the most important thing for children is to weasel pocket money from older relatives in return for offerings like cakes, fruit or clothes.

On the full moon night of Thadingyut and the nights before and after, people light their homes with candles posted in front of Buddha images, under big trees, on stairwell landings, on baskets of rice and many other places. People also hang papier-mâché lanterns, made into the shapes of animals, stars, vehicles or houses – on their verandahs or balconies.

“When Buddha returned from the celestial abode on the full moon night of Thadingyut,” people are told, “people showed their adoration of him with lights. Hence we light candles before the Buddha images.”

Candles are also lit during Thadingyut as offerings to the nats, or spirits, which guard a whole host of things on earth like the trees, rivers, temples and even people.

Afterward, people stroll down streets crowded with people to enjoy the festive atmosphere. Music pumps out of loudspeakers and competes with the cheers of partygoers and exploding fireworks. Many people also ride Ferris wheels, while concerts or stage shows are performed at junctions or in open spaces.

Another activity that people enjoy during Thadingyut, when the skies are often free of clouds, is to attach and light blocks of wax beneath cloth balloons and watch as they ascend towards the moon.

And on the full moon day monks hold pavarana to celebrate the end of lent and also pay respects to their elders. Additionally, they ask each other to forgive any misdeeds that they may have committed on one another.

Even after the final celebrations for Thadingyut have wound up people start planning for another festival of lights – Tazaungdaing – which takes place on the full moon one month later.