by Hla Min
Updated : Aug 2025
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 Festival
- 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.
HlaMin 