YANGON, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar people have been celebrating the Thadingyut lighting festival for three consecutive days across the country since Wednesday despite untimely rainfall.
The auspicious lighting festival of Thadingyut normally falls on the seventh month of the Myanmar calendar year and it usually marks the end of the rainy season.
During the festival, people lit candles and colorful paper lanterns at their homes to mark the day of welcoming the descend of Lord Buddha back to earth after preaching his mother reborn in heaven, according to Myanmar people's belief.
Various kinds of candles, electric lighting, colorful bulbs and paper lanterns were seen hanging on almost every house in the streets in Yangon.
Younger people paid homage to elders including parents and teachers and asked for pardon if they had committed any mistake in speech, thought and acts in the past days and in return, the elders gave them back love and forgiveness, wishing them all the best in the future.
On the full moon day of Thadingyut festival on Thursday, well-known pagodas in Yangon including Shwedagon, Botataung and Sule were congested with pilgrims from both home and abroad.
As part of celebrations on the full moon day, people offered alms, candle lights, joss sticks, flowers and fruits as homage to the pagodas.
The Uppatasanti pagoda in the capital of Nay Pyi Taw was crowded with Buddhist devotees and pilgrims, while other public areas including zoological garden, safari park, national races village were filled with family members, couples and friends.
A large number of pilgrims were also seen in pagodas including Shwekyeemyin, Sacred Tooth Relic, Maha Muni Buddha Image and Aungdawmu Pagodas in the second largest city of Mandalay.
Many Buddhist believers also visited famous pagodas in the ancient city of Bagan where thousands of Buddhist temples lie.
Due to the large number of pilgrims resulting in full occupancy of hotels, motels and inns which were booked out a week before the festival, many visitors had to spend their nights at monasteries in Bagan and Nyaung-U archeological sites.
The lighting festival brought booming business to shops selling festive decorative materials, souvenir and clothings used as gifts to friends and relatives as well as vehicle rental business for pilgrimage tour.
