A look at Myanmar (Burma) Buddhist and Other National Days

You probably know of one person from Burma or Myanmar. Aung San Suu Kyi.

Myanmar is often still called Burma. The national religion is Buddhism. When will your friends from Burma be busy or thinking about home? When should you be sending them greetings? When can you ask them to give a speech about their national days, which have just passed or are upcoming?

National Days

(This was compiled in Nov 2022. Please check for updates.)

2021

Dec 25 Xmas Saturday

Dec 31 New Year Friday

JANUARY - 

Jan 1 New Year's Day (Saturday)

4 Independence Day (Tuesday)

FEB 

Feb 12 National Day (Saturday) and FEB 14 Monday  in lieu

MAR

Peasants' Day

Mar 27 Sunday Armed Forces Day (called Tatmadaw day, and Mar 28 Monday in lieu) 

APR

13-16 Water Festival

17 Burmese New Year

MAY 1 and 2 (Sunday, and Monday in lieu)

May 16 Buddha's Birthday (Full Moon day of Kasong)

JUN - None

JUL

Jul 13 Beginning of Buddhist Lent

July 19 Martyr's Day

AUG - None

SEPT

OCT

Oct 24 Deepavali (or called Diwali) subject to change

NOV

Nov 18 National Day

DEC

25 Xmas Sunday

31 New Year Saturday

 Useful Websites

https://publicholidays.asia/myanmar/2022-dates/

https://www.officeholidays.com/countries/myanmar/2022

About the Author of this blog, Author Angela Lansbury

BIOGRAPHY

Angela Lansbury B A Hons ACG ALB PM5 EH5 DL5 VC5 
The Author of several books, including  Etiquette For Every Occasion. Wedding Speeches & Toasts. How to be the Best Man. Quick Quotations. Who Said What When.

Blogs travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Speakers Club Vice President Public Relations (VPPR), Previous President

Join BHA 1st Wednesday 7pm and 3rd Saturday 2 pm Singapore time 

Vice President Public Relations (VP PR) of Tampines Changkat Advanced;

Secretary of weekly online Singapore International Dynamic Toastmasters Speakers’ Club;

Member and past president of Harrovians toastmasters club, UK; Past member of HOD Toastmasters, London. Past member in Singapore of: Toastmasters Club of Singapore (TCS); Tiarel; and Senja Cashew.

More details from Toastmasters International find a club.

Regular attendee at annual Swanwick Writers’ School, England.

Regular attendee at annual Writers’ Holiday, Wales.

Contributor to poetry readings, and after tea courses on: Speaking On Radio To Promote Books; and Plots And Character.

Winner of many club and area speaking contests in the UK and Singapore.

Language advisor to Empire Toastmasters club in Indonesia.

Language and speech workshops in Singapore.

Speaker on radio and TV in England, Scotland, the USA, and Australia.

Compiler of a school course on public speaking for teachers to prepare pupils for school open days with attending ceremonies before government ministers, Singapore.

Former member of Harrow Writers’ Circle, London, and two writing groups in Singapore.

Angela is on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter. She would be delighted to link up with new friends.

I  also have a blog on comic poems.

 Please share links to your favourite posts. 

More Myanmar (Burma) Photos

 

Giant reclining Buddha. Myanmar (Burma). From Wikipedia.

The major religion is Buddhism.

One legged rowing on the Lake Inle. This reminds me of when I was a child on a scooter. I used to push along with my right foot on the ground. 

To get your head around the layout of the land, think of it as a dog's head looking to the sea on the left. The long thisn neck is in the south. Going north, the first city you come to used to be known as Rangoon.

Useful Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burmese_language

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burmese_respelling_of_the_English_alphabet

The numbers one to ten are easier to recognize and learn, in this website:

https://wikitravel.org/en/Burmese_phrasebook

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Myanmar

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Myanmar

About the author

(About the Author of this blog, Author Angela Lansbury)

BIOGRAPHY

Angela Lansbury B A Hons ACG ALB PM5 EH5 DL5 VC5 
The Author of several books, including  Etiquette For Every Occasion. Wedding Speeches & Toasts. How to be the Best Man. Quick Quotations. Who Said What When.

Blogs travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Speakers Club Vice President Public Relations (VPPR), Previous President

Join BHA 1st Wednesday 7pm and 3rd Saturday 2 pm Singapore time 

Vice President Public Relations (VP PR) of Tampines Changkat Advanced;

Secretary of weekly online Singapore International Dynamic Toastmasters Speakers’ Club;

Member and past president of Harrovians toastmasters club, UK; Past member of HOD Toastmasters, London. Past member in Singapore of: Toastmasters Club of Singapore (TCS); Tiarel; and Senja Cashew.

More details from Toastmasters International find a club.

Regular attendee at annual Swanwick Writers’ School, England.

Regular attendee at annual Writers’ Holiday, Wales.

Contributor to poetry readings, and after tea courses on: Speaking On Radio To Promote Books; and Plots And Character.

Winner of many club and area speaking contests in the UK and Singapore.

Language advisor to Empire Toastmasters club in Indonesia.

Language and speech workshops in Singapore.

Speaker on radio and TV in England, Scotland, the USA, and Australia.

Compiler of a school course on public speaking for teachers to prepare pupils for school open days with attending ceremonies before government ministers, Singapore.

Former member of Harrow Writers’ Circle, London, and two writing groups in Singapore.

Angela is on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter. She would be delighted to link up with new friends.

I  also have a blog on comic poems.

 Please share links to your favourite posts.

Burma or Myanmar - What Armchair Travellers Need to Know and See

 I have a Burmese or Myanmar national in a Toastmasters club. I began wondering which national holidays she might be celebrating, so that I could include them in a calendar of events for 2022 and meeting themes.

Burma is the old name for the country, now called Myanmar, but Burma is still used. Here is the flag.

It has yellow, green and red horizontal stripes, very colourful and  jolly. The colours are made more pronounced by the contrasting five-pointed white star in the centre.

The yellow symbolizes solidarity. Green means peace and lush greenery. Red represents determination. The white star stands for unity.

I had to rename the flag with both of the country's names, Burma and Myanmar, because I could not find it saved on my computer.

The country is large, huge. 

Cities, Sights and Landmarks

Golden Rock, Burma/Myanmar

Myanmar/Burma, Mount Popa

The language looks very pretty, all curves, but very difficult.

Numbers[edit]

Burmese numbers follow the Arabic system of numerals.

0 

၀ (thoun-nya)သုည

1 

၁ (tit)တစ်

2 

၂ (hni)နှစ်

3 

၃ (thoun)သုံး

4 

၄ (lei)လေး

5 

၅ (nga)ငါး

6 

၆ (chao)ခြောက်

7 

၇ (kun hni)ခုနှစ်

8 

၈ (shit)ရှစ်

9 

၉ (koe)ကိုး

10 

၁၀ (se)ဆယ်

11 

၁၁ (seh-tit)ဆယ့်တစ်

Useful Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burmese_language

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burmese_respelling_of_the_English_alphabet

The numbers one to ten are easier to recognize and learn, in this website:

https://wikitravel.org/en/Burmese_phrasebook

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Myanmar

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Myanmar

About the author

(About the Author of this blog, Author Angela Lansbury)

BIOGRAPHY

Angela Lansbury B A Hons ACG ALB PM5 EH5 DL5 VC5 
The Author of several books, including  Etiquette For Every Occasion. Wedding Speeches & Toasts. How to be the Best Man. Quick Quotations. Who Said What When.

Blogs travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Speakers Club Vice President Public Relations (VPPR), Previous President

Join BHA 1st Wednesday 7pm and 3rd Saturday 2 pm Singapore time 

Vice President Public Relations (VP PR) of Tampines Changkat Advanced;

Secretary of weekly online Singapore International Dynamic Toastmasters Speakers’ Club;

Member and past president of Harrovians toastmasters club, UK; Past member of HOD Toastmasters, London. Past member in Singapore of: Toastmasters Club of Singapore (TCS); Tiarel; and Senja Cashew.

More details from Toastmasters International find a club.

Regular attendee at annual Swanwick Writers’ School, England.

Regular attendee at annual Writers’ Holiday, Wales.

Contributor to poetry readings, and after tea courses on: Speaking On Radio To Promote Books; and Plots And Character.

Winner of many club and area speaking contests in the UK and Singapore.

Language advisor to Empire Toastmasters club in Indonesia.

Language and speech workshops in Singapore.

Speaker on radio and TV in England, Scotland, the USA, and Australia.

Compiler of a school course on public speaking for teachers to prepare pupils for school open days with attending ceremonies before government ministers, Singapore.

Former member of Harrow Writers’ Circle, London, and two writing groups in Singapore.

Angela is on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter. She would be delighted to link up with new friends.

I  also have a blog on comic poems.

 Please share links to your favourite posts.

What's that plant which smells so delicious at night?

Rangoon vine? Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Problem
Every evening I passed a wonderful plant, pink flowers, aromatic stop-and-sniff aroma.
What is it?

Answer

I passed a lady clipping away at the edge. I passed her and stopped to look. She must have heard my footsteps and seen my shadow.

I smiled and she smiled. "Lovely plant!" I exclaimed. "Beautiful colours. What is it?"

She replied, "A 'Rangoon vine'. From Burma, now called Myanmar - next to Thailand. I am snipping away the dead parts."

I asked, "How do you know which parts are dead?"

"The dead parts have turned black."

Photo by Angela Lansbury.

She also showed me boughainvillea. "The government plants it over the bridges because it needs so little maintenance. No need to water it. It thrives on sunshine and lack of water."

She showed me more plants. "This is calamansi, as we call it. You call it lime. "

Sh moved on, "Do you like lemon grass. I'll cut you a spike of lemon grass. Smell it where it's been cut."

She kept pointing out more plants, "Over there's aloe vera. It's supposed to be good for you, if you know how to apply it. But if you do the wrong thing, it can be bad for you."

Such is life.

Useful Websites:

http://www.gardenersworld.com/plants/plant-inspiration/plants-for-evening-scent/

Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.