February 12, 2018
AS the Shwe Sar Yan pagoda festival
is drawing closer, palm leaf craft makers are producing a lot of palm leaf
necklaces and fish toys so everyone can have a chance to buy them.
The palm leaf necklaces and fish
toys are the most popular souvenirs at the annual pagoda festival that is held
for nine days. The festival starts on the full moon day of Tabaung, the 12th
and final month of the Myanmar calendar year, and this year it will be on March
1, Thursday.
It is one of the biggest pagoda festivals
in the Mandalay Region, and people throughout Myanmar visit the ancient pagoda.
Vendors sell not only palm leaf crafts but also dried bottle gourd and
traditional Shan snacks at the festival. Every festival goer buys palm leaf
based artwork, mostly necklaces and fish toys as souvenirs for friends because they
are major icons of the festival.
The fish toys represent the actual
fish that appear at the pagoda around this time of year. People from Nyaung
Shwe Nyaung Chat village in Kyaukse Towship are making palm necklaces and fish
toys only for the festival. It is a traditional business which has been
practiced since their ancestors’ time. They use fresh leaves of toddy palm
trees. Even children can make palm necklaces in the village.
They sell their products to
wholesalers. But some villagers make the crafts for the wholesalers to sell.
Finally, the wholesalers dye the products they bought to sell at the pagoda festival
as colourful palm crafts.
Ref; The Global New Light of
Myanmar
No comments:
Post a Comment