Myanmar water fest welcomes new year
Midmorning rain did not dampen spirits at the eighth annual Myanmar New Year’s Water Festival in Union City.
On Sunday, crowds swelled to a few hundred as the Bay Area’s Myanmar community and other locals came to celebrate the Thingyan (pronounced thin-jen) festival, also called the Burmese New Year’s Festival. Myanmar, a land of more than 130 ethnic groups, was formerly called Burma.
For Fremont resident Rosie Chu, 26, who was born in Mandalay in Myanmar but moved with her family to the U.S. at 8 months old, the celebration is an important way of creating community.
“When you come to America, it’s hard to remember your identity,” she said. “There’s pressure to fit in, and when my parents moved here, people weren’t so welcoming to other cultures. This is so much more than just an event for me.”
The festival started with a ceremony for elders with men and women wearing traditional “longyi” — a type of sarong inspired by the Indian lungi. Speeches and dances followed. A traditional dance called the “yein” took place with friends Monalisa Lam and Stacy Huang, both 18 and from Fremont, participating. The pair, part of a larger group of dancers, said they met once a week for practice over the past two months.
Guests at the event included Myanmar’s ambassador to the U.S., Aung Lynn, who said he was “happy to see the Myanmar culture maintained and flourishing in the San Francisco Bay Area.” The last census in 2010 pegged the Burmese population in the Bay Area at around 7,000.
Union City Police Chief Jared Rinetti, who was there with his wife and three children, said the New Year’s festival showcased the Bay Area’s diversity and traditions that make “this city and this country special.”
Water holds special significance in the Myanmar New Year’s festivities, considered to be symbolic for washing away sins and starting fresh. Sai Lao Kham, a performer onstage portraying Thagyamin (pronounced ja-min), a spirit from the heavens, was there to shower blessings and wish the crowd well. He said water signifies purification.
Attendees flocked to 15 food booths that sold Burmese cuisine such as mohingya, a fish chowder, and Shan-style rice, which is rice cooked with fish flakes, turmeric and garlic oil. No restaurants or food trucks were allowed as vendors. Instead, organizers got a one-day permit and community members came together to cook and sell the food.
“It’s literally our aunts, mothers and grandmothers who are making the food,” said Moe Mra San, a spokeswoman for the One Myanmar Community, organizers of the festival. The organization is a cohort of groups, including the Myanmar Muslim Association, Burma Refugee Family Network and the Theravada Dhamma Society. The event is a fundraiser for its community and cultural center in Union City, a place that offers citizenship and language classes, among other activities.
The Myanmar New Year began April 13. The festival is usually a four- or five-day affair.
“When you come to America, it’s hard to remember your identity. There’s pressure to fit in, and when my parents moved here, people weren’t so welcoming to other cultures. This is so much more than just an event for me.” Rosie Chu of Fremont