Thingyan Festival, new year for Burmese

Burmese new year starts from mid-April and celebration takes place four or five days.  It is known as Thingyan (Songkran in Thailand) and we splash water at others for the cleansing or purification of body.  For the purification of soul, we do good deeds like offering foods, taking care of elderly, setting animals free, etc. This year is 1380 in Burmese calendar, and new year starts from 17th April.  Ko Toe would like to take this opportunity to wish you all happy new year.

On this occasion, I want to share one postcard and postmark Myanmar Post produced for last year celebration.  The postcard was sold at Yasngon GPO on 4 April 2017, and pictorial cancellation was also provided.  Postmark did not specifically mention date.  The postmark shows atar-pot filled with seven kinds of flowers.

Yangon GPO cancellation

Mandalay GPO cancellation

One controversial issue here is the copyright of the design element in the postcard.  Ko Hlwann Hmi and I found out that the couple in the design is a creative artwork of Ko Aung Kyaw Khin, done in 2012.  We have checked with the owner of the artwork, and he said he is not informed by anyone for the usage on the postcard.  The original digital artwork is shown below.