This weekend has been Tazaungdine – the festival of lights. Every full moon seems to be a public holiday here, but this one is more special. According to Wikipedia (source of all my knowledge) it marks the end of the rainy season – ironic then that it rained heavily last night – and is also a time where monks are offered alms and new robes. For the last few weeks all over town what seem to be temporary collecting stations have set up. Blaring music and encouraging people to give. Last weekend we bumped into this procession of tri-shaws carrying all the robes and umbrellas, and fans, and slippers and money and alms bowls that had been donated.
There was also an elephant!!
Last night we headed up to Shwedagon with the rest of Myanmar. The place was rammed, and heavy with the smell of 9,999 oil candles, until it started raining heavily, putting out the candles, sending everyone running into the side temples for shelter, and turning the marble floor into a lethal ice rink (without the ice).
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