Some holidays

• have fixed date
• have relative dates
• are designated as Public holidays
• are religious

January

• Jan 1 : New Year’s Day
• Jan 4 : Independence Day in Myanmar
• Martin Luther King’s Day in US
• Occasionally : Lunar New Year

February

• Feb 12 : Union Day
• Feb 13 : Children’s Day (Bogyoke Aung San’s birthday)
• Feb 14 : Valentine’s Day
• US Presidents’ Day
• Occasionally : Lunar New Year
• Occasionally : Full Moon Day of Tabodwe — Htamane Pwe & [Buddha’s] Exhortation Day

March

• Mar 2 : Peasant’s Day was moved from Jan 1 in order to celebrate the Coup D’eat
• Phone Maw Day
• Burma’s Human Rights Day (celebrated by Berkeley)
• Mar 27 : Resistance Day was renamed as Armed Forces Day
• First Day of Spring : Persian New Year

April

• Thingyan : Three or four days of Water Fesival
• Myanmar New Year

May

• May 1 : May Day in some countries
• May 5 : Cinco de Mayo
• Mother’s Day in the US

June

• Jun 6 : D Day
• Jun 6 : Ah Loke Thamar Ah Yay Ah Khinn
• Father’s Day in the US

July

• Jul 4 : Independence Day in the US
• Jul 7 : Students’ protest that was brutally crushed
• Jul 8 : Demolition of the Rangoon University Student’s Union
• Jul 19 : Arzani Nay
• Apollo 11 landed in Tranquility Bay on the Moon in July 1969
• My poem “Men on the Moon” was sent to NASA via USIS. A copy was published in the Guardian.

August

• 8-8-88 : start of a long struggle to restore Democracy in Myanmar
• Several birthdays in my extended family

September

• Crushing the hopes of Multi-party Democracy
• Occasionally : End of Burmese Buddhist Lent

October

• Occasionally : End of Burmese Buddhist Lent (Thadinkyut)
• “Deepavali” or “Diwali” celebrations are also celebrated around October. It is known as the “Festival of Lights”.
• “Halloween” occurs every year on October 31 with “Trick or
• Treat” by the children and [optional] “Halloween Costume Party” by young and old adults.

November

• Elections in the US (Local races & Resolutions every year, House of Representatives every two years, One third of Senators every two years, President every four years)
• Nov 22 : JFK assassinated (Conspiracy Theory survives)
• Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the US

December

• U Thant Ah Yay Ah Khinn : dark day in the history of Burma
• Apollo 8 orbited the Moon in December 1968
• Dec 25 : Christmas
• Dec 31 : New Year’s Eve

Grapevine says that some holy days are preceded by some “fun events”.

• Halloween (October 31) precedes “All Saints Day” (November 1).
• Similarly, “Mardi Gras” (“Fat Tuesday”) falls on the day before “Ash Wednesday” signifying the start of the Lent.