[Myanmar] Rangoon Revelers Count The Cost Of Thingyan

[News_Editor]

Water throwing pavilion set up for this year's Thingyan New Year festival in Rangoon. (Photo: Irrawaddy)RANGOON—With water throwing pavilions being erected all across the city, Rangoon is now ready for Thingyan—the traditional Burmese festival to bid farewell to the old year and greet the new one.Emboldened by the government’s encouragement to mark the celebration on a grand scale, most teenagers in the town have been in festive mood since last month and busy making plans for how to joyfully participate in the five-day New Year holiday which starts on Friday.“We have been setting up this water throwing pavilion since late last month. Now we are doing some finishing touches,†said Thet Wai Lin, one of the organizers of the 100-foot Friends4Ever Pavilion by Kandawgyi Lake—boasting abundant water for revelers to hose down every passer-by.In the same neighborhood, more than 20 pandals—temporary water spraying platforms that double as dance floors—have been erected since the beginning of the month. Each is large enough to accommodate at least 500 people who want a chance to dance to ear-shattering music while drenching nearby merrymakers.Thingyan here is mostly comprised of young people stomping on top of their cars with garden hoses and water cannons. The state-run dailies reported last week that 45 water throwing platforms were under construction with the government’s approval throughout the former capital.Even though the point of the traditional New Year welcoming festival is simply to have fun, for those who organize the pavilions the celebration does not come cheap.“We’ve spent around 3,500,000 kyat (US $4,280) so far for our 100-feet long pandals,†said Zar Ni, one of the organizers.The 23-year-old university student and his friends are sharing the cost—including buying government permission to build their pavilion, paying the water rates, hiring construction workers, private security personnel and generators.“We paid around $810 to buy the permit from someone who already had one,†he said. “Generally, you have to pay almost nothing to seek permission from the government, but most of the permits go to someone close to the authorities. These cronies have a lucrative business every year in scalping the permits out.â€â€œAfter adding the other expenditure on fuel bills, decorations and hiring a DJ with sound system and so on, there’s no wonder setting up a platform cost that much,†said Zar Ni.To cover the cost, water throwing pavilion organizers collect admission fees to anyone who wants join their pandals during the festival.“We charge 30,000 or 40,000 kyat [$35-50] for one person to join our pavilion throughout the festival. Free lunch and drinks included,†said Thet Wai Lin.In its last heyday of the 1990s, when Rangoon was the government’s seat of power and international companies did business here, the former capital saw vibrant Thingyan festivals  every April.Each year government ministries had to set up their own water throwing pavilions to celebrate the festival, while foreign companies also took part in Thingyan by erecting big platforms to have fun while promoting their products.But with its demotion to a regional business hub and the departure of international firms due to economic sanctions, Rangoon lost some of its Thingyan luster. That’s where teenagers like Thet Wai Lin and Zar Ni come in to revive the city’s New Year spirit.But some people believe that the way young people currently participate in the festival comes across as overly commercial.“Nowadays, Thingyan has become a money-making festival.  In the old days, all we had in our minds was to have fun. You could join any pandal free of charge. Now you have to pay a wad of money if you want to join a water throwing pavilion to have fun,†said Hla Tun, 68, a retired headmaster.“Now I feel the festival only belongs to the rich. For us, we just shoot a glance of envy,†claims Aung Naing, 20, a construction worker who was making some final touches on a pavilion near Kandagyi Lake that he has been working for five days.“No one knows exactly if we make any profit by setting up a pavilion. You could call it ‘a risky business.’ If something bad happens, like a bomb explosion, we will be in big trouble,†said one of the organizers, referring to the deadly bomb attack at a water throwing pavilion near Kandawgyi Lake in 2010.Since that explosion, the government has ordered pavilion organizers to set up at least four CCTV cameras and hire private security guards.“But one thing for sure is that we Burmese and Thingyan are inseparable,†the organizer added. “We want to have fun during the festival so we find some way to do that. We beef up security by hiring more than a dozen private security personnel.â€Wai Phyo Aung, another organizer of the Friends4Ever water throwing pavilion, said he hoped everything would go smoothly in this year.“I’ve sent my silent prayers to god for nothing bad to happen at this year’s festival,†he said.

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