Water Festival

The Myanmar New Year is celebrated in April. With Myanmar/Burmese culture being deeply entrenched in Buddhism, there is a heavy Buddhist influence on their celebrations. "Water Festival" is the celebration of the new year. Water Festival is right after the hottest season(March) in Myanmar when everything is hot and dry. Traditionally, the Buddhist Burmsese would ask one of their gods to bring water to the land. Each household had a ceremony and there was also a parade of young people that would toss/throw water EVERYWHERE and on EVERYONE. The ceremony symbolized "cleansing" from the old year to prepare for the new year.

Water Festival is still a big part of Burmese culture today, for Buddhists and non-Buddhists. It is still a huge celebration of water. There is also dancing, singing, and traditional deserts. This weekend, we were invited to Water Festival at our Burmese friends' church. This was quite the experience! First, we had a worship service. The festival was held at the church, so the Christian Burmese used it to invite their lost (mostly Buddhist) friends who would want to celebrate the new year. They had their normal church service with a time of worship and a message from their pastor.
                                 

We enjoyed worshipping with the believers there and seeing their hearts for not only their people group, but for the Lord. I love experiencing and remembering that Jesus does not speak English, but speaks the universal language of Love; our heart language.

After the worship service was the Festival! We were able to visit with many of our friends who we had not seen in a while and catch up with them. (as best we could in our broken languages) And we also learned a great deal more about Burmese culture.

We had desert..

    Coconut balls with brown sugar, toasted coconut
     with rice, pounded sweet rice in seaweed, and
       mon phe to (bananas and sticky rice in seaweed- my
 favorite Burmese dish) 

 I'm not sure what this dish is called, and I
  can't say that I tried it, but they love it!
It's coconut milk, green jelly, bread, and ice :) 

We watched some traditional dancing...and I was asked to participate in some dancing as well. I'll spare you the videos of that and just put a pic :)

We were also "blessed" with splashes of water and sweet smiles. Overall, it was such a fun time with them. I really enjoy learning more about their culture and just getting to know them more. The Lord is definitely at work among the Burmese community in Nashville and we are so blessed to be a part of it.