Globerovers Magazine, July 2019

Nagaland
NEW YEAR
In the remote northwestern corner of Myanmar lies Nagaland—home to the Naga people who
live peacefully on both sides of the border between India and Myanmar. During mid-January,
the Naga people travel from far across the region to a chosen town where they spend three
days celebrating the start of the new year. We joined them and were mesmerized.
New Year is the time of the year
when most of us are in a festive
mood. Wherever you are in the
world, there is a special time of
the year when your culture calls on you to reunite
with friends and family, or alternatively to
head for the beaches and party islands.
Some of us follow the Pope’s timing. That is
Pope Gregory XIII who
gave us the Gregorian
calendar in 1582 so we
know New Year starts at
midnight on December
31st. Time to pop the
champagne, or whatever you can get to feed
your partying mood. Others look at the phase of
the moon or the sun, or a combination of both.
In Asia, several countries rely on the lunisolar
calendar, an older version of the Hindu calendar.
While the Chinese have a moving target
around February, the Thai New Year (Songkran)
is celebrated on April 13th.
The Burmese New Year (Thingyan) is celebrated
in the middle of April according to the
New Year is a time to celebrate in dance
and music. One of the most colourful
festivals is in Myanmar’s Nagaland.
Burmese lunisolar calendar. In Nagaland, the
New Year festival is observed in mid-January.
Nagaland. That reminds me of a place with
a very colourful New Year festival. I have been
to some memorable New Year festivals in New
York City’s Time Square, London, Hong Kong
and Tokyo. I have attended countless Chinese
New Year festivals filled with dancing lions
and the accompanying
banging of tanggu drums,
cymbals, and gongs. But
sadly, I had never experienced
a Nagaland New
Year festival.
Several times I have looked at the map of
Nagaland, split between India and Myanmar
(Burma) by an international dividing line, and
wished I could visit.
Recently I decided to make it happen so I
started my planning rituals. First I had to better
understand the history of Nagaland and then
decide whether to attend the Nagaland festival
of India to the west of the international border
or Myanmar’s Nagaland to the east.
Article • Myanmar | 103