A mother’s footprint

Thursday, 20 January 2011 13:23 Ko Pauk

New Delhi (Mizzima) – More than 200 people, accompanied by their mothers, have visited the Waizayandar Religious Hall in the Sakyathiha Pagoda compound in Mandalay to leave their mothers’ footprints to mark Burma’s Mother’s Day, according to organisers of the Mother's Day ceremony.

Later, the children will be able to pay homage to their mothers’ footprints.

‘They applied a paste mixture of oil and turmeric to the feet. Then, they stood on a white cloth and the soles and heels were pressed down. Then, the perimeters of the footprints were marked and decorated with embroidered flowers. The white cloth is then a representation of a mother’s footprints’, University Phone Myint Aung, the chairman of the organising committee, told Mizzima.

The tradition was started in Sagaing, which is near Mandalay, where sons and daughters used to take the footprints of their elderly parents. Writer Min Thurein wrote about the tradition in the book ‘Mom’s Footprints and Other Articles”.

Burma’s Mother’s Day falls on the Full Moon day of January 19 in accord with the Burmese traditional calendar.

To mark the 15th Mother’s Day, more than 3,000 people attended the Mother’s Day ceremony on Wednesday afternoon.

‘The Waizayandar Religious Hall was full. The pagoda’s compound was also crowded’, book shop owner Tun Oo, who attended the ceremony, told Mizzima.

In the ceremony, former actress Swe Zin Htike gave a talk titled ‘About Mom’ recalling how her mother looked after her and how she tended her daughter. Writer Chit Oo Nyo delivered a speech about the love between U Thant, who was secretary-general of the United Nations from 1961 to 1971, and his mother. At the ceremony last year, film directors Maung Nay Myo and Bogalay Tint Aung, and former actress and singer Cho Pyone gave talks. Pamphlets with quotations on mother’s love were distributed on the occasion.

In 1997, Burma’s first Mother’s Day ceremony was held in Pariyatti Sasana Beikman by a group of prominent writers led by Thukha and Ludu Daw Amar.

Event organiser University Phone Myint Aung told Mizzima: ‘The lunar month Pyatho is the coldest month, and the Full Moon Day of Pyatho is the coldest day. And the loves of mothers are cool. That’s why Mother’s Day is celebrated on the Full Moon Day of Pyatho. If people love their mother, I think they will also love the country. That’s why we hold the Mother’s Day’.

Mother’s Day ceremonies were also held in 30 areas including Madaya in Mandalay Division, Katha, Monywa, Shwebo, and Kanbalu in Sagaing Division, Lashio in Shan State and in Rangoon.

Since 1997, Mother’s Day has been officially held every year. In Burma, Father’s Day falls on the Full Moon Day of Dapaung in accord with the Burmese calendar.