Myanmar is a Land of Festivals: a festival for every month of the year. Most festivals are cultural and religious. Majority are nation-wide celebrated while a few are distinctly regional.

Traditionally Myanmar follows a 12 month lunar calendar, so the old holidays and festivals will vary in date, by the Gregorian calendar, from year to year. Myanmar also has a number of more recently originated holidays whose dates are fixed by the Gregorian calendar.

Festivals are drawn-out, enjoyable affairs in Myanmar. They generally take place or culminate on full-moon days, but the buildup can continue for days. There's often a country-fair atmosphere about these festivals – at some convenient grounds there will be innumerable stalls and activities that go on all night. Pwes, music and Burmese boxing bouts will be part of the colorful scene.

January / February
Independence Day - Independence Day on 4 January is a major public holiday marked by a seven day fair at Kandawgyi (Royal) Lake in Yangon. There are fairs all over the country at this time.
Union Day - Union Day on 12 February celebrates Bogyoke Aung San's short-lived achievement of unifying Myanmar's disparate racial groups. For two weeks preceding Union Day, the national flag is paraded from town to town, and wherever the flag rests there must be a festival. The month of Tabodwe culminates in a rice-harvesting festi­val on the new-moon day. Htamin (literally, rice), a special food-offering made and eaten at this time, consists of glutinous rice mixed with sesame, peanuts, shredded ginger and coconut. In villages large batches of htamin are cooked over open fires and stirred with big wooden paddles until they become a thick mass, after which the rice is wrapped in small banana-leaf parcels and distributed among all the members of the community.

February / March
Shwedagon Festival - The lunar month of Tabaung brings the annual Shwedagon Festival, the largest paya pwe (pagoda festival) in Myanmar. The full-moon day in Tabaung is also an auspicious occasion for the construction of new payas, and local paya festivals are held.
Peasants' Day / Armed Forces Day - Two holidays fall during our month of March: 2 March is Peasants' Day, while 27 March is Resistance or Armed Forces Day, celebrated with parades and fireworks.

April / May
Buddha's Birthday - The full-moon day of Kason is celebrated as the Buddha's birthday, the day of his enlightenment and the day he entered nibbana. Thus it is known as the 'thrice blessed day'. The holiday is celebrated by the ceremonial watering of bo trees, the sacred banyan tree under which Buddha attained enlightenment. One of the best places to observe this ceremony is at Yangon's Shwedagon Paya, where a procession of girls carry earthen jars to water the three banyan trees on the western side of the compound.
Workers' Day - Although the government renounced socialism in 1989, the country still celebrates May Day - 1 May - as Workers' Day.

June / July
Buddhist Lent - The full moon of Waso is the beginning of the three month Buddhist 'Lent'. Laypeople present monasteries with stacks of new robes for resi­dent monks, since during the Lent period monks are restricted to their monasteries for a prolong­ed period of spiritual retreat. Ordinary people are also expected to be rather more religious during this time - marriages do not take place and it is inauspicious to move house. The most devout Burmese Buddhist will observe eight precepts -rather than the usual five - for the duration of the season. This is a good time for young men to temporarily enter the monasteries.
Martyrs' Day - The 19th of July is Martyrs' Day, commemo­rating the assassination of Bogyoke Aung San and his comrades on that day in 1947.

July / August
Wagaung Festival - At the festival in Wagaung, lots are drawn to see who will have to provide monks with their alms. If you're in Mandalay, try to get to Taungbyone, about 30km north, where there is a noisy, seven day festival to keep the nats happy.

September / October
Boat Races - This is the height of the wet season, so what better time to hold boat races? They're held in rivers, lakes and even ponds all over Myanmar, but the best place to be is Inle where the Bud­dha images at the Phaung Daw U Kyaung are ceremonially toured around the lake in the huge royal barge, the Karaweik. The latter comes just before the festival of Thadingyut and usually overlaps late September and early October.
Thadingyut - In Thadingyut, the Buddhist Lent comes to an end and all those couples who had been putting off marriage now rush into each other's arms. Monks are free to travel from kyaung to kyaung or to go on pilgrimage to holy spots such as Kyaiktiyo or Mt Popa. The Festival of Lights takes place during Thadingyut to celebrate Buddha's return from a period of preaching dhamma (Buddhist philosophy) in Tavatimsa (the highest deva realm), his way lit by devas who lined the route of his descent. For the three days of the festival all of Myanmar is lit by oil lamps, fire balloons, candles and even mundane electric lamps. Every house has a paper lantern hanging outside and it's a happy, joyful time all over Myanmar - particularly after the solemnity of the previous three months. Pwes may be per­formed on pandals (stage platforms) erected along city streets, particularly in Mandalay.

October / November
Tazaungmon - The full-moon night of Tazaungmon is an occa­sion for another 'festival of lights', known properly as Tazaungdaing. It's particularly celebrated in the Shan State - in Taunggy, there are fire balloon competitions. In some areas there are also speed-weaving competitions during the night -young Burmese women show their prowess at weaving by attempting to produce robes for Buddha images between dusk and dawn. The re­sults, finished or not, are donated to the monks. The biggest weaving competitions take place at Shwedagon Paya in Yangon.
Kahtein - Tazaungmon also brings kahtein (Pali: kathina), a one month period at the end of Buddhist Lent during which new monastic robes and requi­sites are offered to the monastic community. Many people simply donate cash; kyat notes are folded and stapled into floral patterns on wooden 'trees' called padetha and offered to the monasteries. This symbolises a much older tradition in which laypeople would leave kathina robes hanging from tree branches in the forest for monks to find.
National Day - Myanmar's national day falls in late November or early December.

November / December
Nadaw - During Nadaw, many nat pwes are held; Nadaw is actually spelt with the characters for nat and taw (respectful honorific).
Christmas - Despite Myanmar's predominantly Buddhist background, Christmas Day is a public holiday in deference to the many Christian Kayin.

December / January
Kayin New Year - Held on the first waxing moon of Pyatho, the Kayin New Year is considered a national holi­day. Kayin communities throughout Myanmar celebrate by wearing their traditional dress of woven tunics over red longyis and by hosting folk dancing and singing performances. The largest celebrations are held in the Kayin sub­urb of Insein, just north of Yangon, and in Hpa-an, the capital of the Kayin State.
Ananda Festival - The Ananda Festival, held at the Ananda Paya in Bagan, also takes place during Pyatho.

Paya Pwes - In addition to these main pan-Myanmar fes­tivals, nearly every active paya or kyaung community hosts occasional celebrations of its own, often called pagoda festivals in Burmese English. The typical paya pwe fea­tures the same kinds of activities as a major festival - craft and food vendors, music and dance - on a smaller scale. The biggest proliferation of paya fairs occur on full-moon days and nights during the January to March period, following the main rice harvest, pro­viding local paddy farmers and their fami­lies a good excuse to party. The festivals also offer added market venues for local basketweavers, potters, woodcarvers, black­smiths, longyi-weavers and other artisans.
To the professional hse-hna pwe thi (twelve-festival traders) who travel from festival to festival following the lunar cal­endar, the smaller paya fairs serve as con­venient fillers between major gigs. Other assorted camp followers include fortune­tellers, movable teashops, tent barbers, homespun beauty consultants, pickpockets and professional beggars.