ReligiousOct – NovLunar layoutDate varies

Tazaungdaing - the Burmese full-moon festival of Tazaungmon, when paper lanterns rise over Bagan

Tazaungdaing is a Burmese Buddhist festival held on the full moon of Tazaungmon in the eighth lunar month. Satipa, the festival of lights, fills the night sky over Bagan and Sagaing with thousands of floating paper lanterns.

MM

Religious observancePublished October 22, 2026

At a glanceReligious observance
Observed in
MM
Where observed
When
Oct - Nov
Frequency
Lunar calendar (date shifts)
Type
Days off
0 days - cultural observance only
Public status
Religious observance - schools / shops normally open
Last reviewed: October 22, 2026
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Tazaungdaing falls on the full moon of Tazaungmon, the eighth lunar month, and has two halves: Shwekyan, the festival of lights, and Satipa, the festival of charity. On the full-moon night, thousands of paper lanterns rise over Bagan and Sagaing.

The one-line summary

Burmese festival on the full moon of the eighth lunar month, late October to November. Religious category, standard tier. Regionally variable date - Myanmar uses several calendars and the regions can disagree by up to three days.

Origin

Tazaungdaing is built from the words zaung, meaning a brick or stacked structure, and daing, meaning to raise or ascend. Both halves of the festival take their names from what is raised: pagodas in the Shwekyan phase, literally or in spirit, and floating lanterns in the Satipa phase.

The festival sits inside the wider Theravada merit calendar. The full moon of the eighth lunar month is one of the principal observance days, and Myanmar attaches to it an unusually elaborate material form - riverbank paper architecture and a sky full of flame.

When it falls

The full moon of the eighth lunar month falls on different dates in different Burmese regions, because the country uses several astronomical reckonings and regional authorities announce their own. Recent dates include November 16 in 2024, November 4 in 2025 and November 23 in 2026. Do not treat a single calendar as definitive for the whole country.

How it is observed

The Satipa lantern release is the dominant modern image. Each village builds a cylinder several metres tall out of layers of rice paper on a bamboo frame, lights a candle inside, and glues banknotes and lottery tickets around the base as an offering to the spirits. At sunset a brazier of burning bamboo heats the air inside and the cylinder lifts. The sky over Bagan, Sagaing and Yangon fills with them within minutes, and the sight has been photographed from a hot-air balloon on the full-moon night for decades.

Shwekyan, the festival of lights, has largely faded in most of the country, as has the wet-season parade of floats. Monasteries still hold evening recitations, and laypeople donate to monasteries and release small paper lanterns from gardens and riverbanks.

Public status

Tazaungdaing is an official public holiday in Myanmar, gazetted annually and often split across multiple days to accommodate the regional calendar difference.

Where it is contested

The festival is not contested. What is genuinely awkward is the date. Because Myanmar's regions follow different astronomical reckonings, no single Myanmar date exists for a lunar festival. This matters commercially: tour operators quote a date for the lantern night that may not match the local calendar at the village a visitor is actually going to.

Related holidays

Tazaungdaing is the Burmese counterpart to the full-moon observances elsewhere in the Theravada world - the same lunar day at the start of the year isMakha Bucha, and Vesak falls in May. It shares its month with thePchum Ben ancestor festival, so the same weeks carry both merit for the living and merit for the dead.

Sources

Frequently asked questions

What is Tazaungdaing?

Tazaungdaing is a Burmese Buddhist festival held on the full-moon day of Tazaungmon, the eighth lunar month. It has two halves: <em>Shwekyan</em>, the festival of lights, and <em>Satipa</em>, the festival of charity and merit, both named for the merit the full moon is held to generate.

How is the paper lantern tradition done?

Communities build enormous cylinders of rice paper - several metres tall, one for every village - on bamboo skeletons, fill them with a candle, and attach paper money at the base. At sunset the whole cylinder is released with hot air from a burning brazier at its base, so it lifts and joins a sky already full of them. Millions are released nationally on the full-moon night.

Why does the date differ by region?

Myanmar uses several regional calendars, so Bagan, Sagaing and Yangon commonly observe the full moon on different dates - up to two or three days apart. A calendar that gives you October 23 may be correct for one of the others, but not for the village you are travelling to.

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