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.

Update on Xmas/Hanukah/Halloween cookie cutters

Christmas/Hanukah cookie cutters
Getting ready for Christmas, I just bought two copies of Essentials magazine number Xmas issue (£2.99 each copy) from a Tesco Express in order to get the metal cookie cutters.

One set consists of a Christmas tree, six pointed wiggly edge star, and bell.

The other set has a five pointed straight sided star, an angel (I thought it was a gingerbread man until I looked closer) and a J shape candy cane.

A six point star was on a mince tart at the end of the set meal at the Civil Service Club Xmas dinner.
Lots of mince tarts which are sold in supermarkets are decorated with stars. I think it's something to do with the symbolism of the three magi (wise men) following the stars to the town of Bethlehem to the stable where Jesus was said to be born. However, a six point star does very nicely for a talk or topic (impromptu speech, originally a topic taken from the table) about Hanukah at a Toastmasters Xmas/winter party. (The hanukah symbol is the 9 branch candlestick, but if you want a symbol on the food a six point star does nicely.)

The Xmas cutter will do for cutting biscuits or sandwiches. I plan to use if for icing shapes to stand up or lie flat on a fruit cake with a white icing top.

More Cutters From Morrisons
Morrisons, like Tesco, sells the Essentials Magazine with the 'free' cookie cutters, at £2.99.

However, for only £1 in Morrisons  you can get three larger cookie cutters with a seasonal theme in red plastic. The designs I saw were for three: Xmas tree, star, and another.

Nesting Stars On Ebay
A set of ten nesting stars on ebay can be stacked to make a Xmas tree.

Hanukah Cookie Cutters
I did a search for hanukah cookie cutters. This is the sort of thing which is hard to find in a hurry overseas. For example, one year I was travelling to Singapore and needed some symbols them to give a talk to Friends of The Museum on Hanukah for a multi-cultural winter workshop and holiday party. In the UK I see the work Hanukah but US sites spell it Chanukah. They sell cookie cutters in sets of three, usually including a six point star and a dreidl (spinning top).

Halloween
You can also buy sets of nesting Halloween cookie cutters.

Nesting sets of hearts are handy for wedding anniversaries, birthdays and Valentine's day. I also liked the rolling pins which roll out a line of hearts or stars, for decorating ribbons of pastry or icing for cakes.

If you want only one cutter, for £1.19 including postage, try ebay:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Christmas-Cookie-Biscuit-Pastry-Cutters-Angel-Bell-Xmas-Tree-Star-Star-Boot-/181532105254?pt=UK_Home_Baking_Accessories&var=


www.essentialsmagazine.com
www.tesco.com
www.tesco.com/direct
www.morrisons.com