Photos of lavish Thadingyut celebrations that have recently been splashed across the junta’s propaganda newspapers are nowhere close to reality.
Thadingyut, or the Festival of Light, is one of the most popular festivals in Myanmar. It is a time for family reunions, when many people return to their ancestral hometowns to spend a few days with their families while younger people pay respect to their parents, teachers and elderly relatives.
This time-honored tradition that brings families, friends, and loved ones together remains, but fighting between the junta and resistance forces since the 2021 coup has separated many families and displaced millions. Many have lost loved ones who will never return home for Thadingyut. Some no longer have homes to return to. Some are in exile or hiding, while others are in jail.
What is the meaning of Thadingyut when your loved ones don’t or can’t come home to see you? What is the point of returning to a house where there is no one waiting?
Thadingyut nights were once filled with vibrant celebrations, lights, and processions. Homes and streets would be adorned with colorful lights to mark the Buddha’s descent from heaven.
But the economy has plummeted since the coup, leading to high inflation and soaring food prices. Many citizens are struggling to make ends meet. While they would like to illuminate their homes for this special occasion, the high price of candles and the recent hike in electricity prices by the regime have discouraged many from doing so.
While some neighborhoods may be able to afford to illuminate their streets, there is no guarantee that the lights will even work due to the rolling blackouts that have plagued Myanmar since the coup.
Traditionally, people offer fruits and flowers to the Buddha during this festival, but high prices have forced them to reduce their offerings. “We know prices are not reasonable, but this is our livelihood and we have no choice,” a flower vendor said.
Thadingyut is also a time to express gratitude when people pay respect to their parents and elders. But preparing presentable offerings for elders on a tight budget is a challenging task.
Clothes are expensive, and the cost of popular gifts like vitamin supplements is exorbitant. Some plump for biscuit tins, but their prices are growing, and even cooking oil comes at a high cost.
In Yangon, housewives go round and round the shopping malls looking for appropriate gifts that fit their budget, and it can take them a long time to make up their minds.
Cash is another option, but handing over a slim envelope makes many feel bad, and the value of the kyat has plummeted since the coup.
Some friends say they will put off paying their respects until Tazaungdaing.
My younger sisters have already gone to Thailand to work and avoid conscription. While they are absent, I don’t want to keep my parents and relatives waiting for me.
I also feel discouraged by the cost of hailing a taxi to visit each relative and senior now that high fuel prices have prompted taxi fares to go up.
True, pagodas still throng with devotees, as reported in the official media, on the Full Moon Day of Thadingyut.
But homes Yangon’s neighborhoods are no longer brightly lit this Thadingyut, and the teeming crowds in the streets are a thing of the past.
Instead, on Full Moon Day on Thursday, banners with anti-regime slogans were hung at Shwedagon Pagoda, the most sacred place of worship in Myanmar. “Down with Dictatorship,” they said, and “May the Revolution Succeed” Perhaps these are the most desperate wishes of the Myanmar people.
