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Report n°5 : "Water : symbolism and culture"
Water festivals
Burmese also have a water festival.
Burma, like Egypt, has its own majestic river, the Irrawady, and another treasure, the Inle lake which is the lifeblood of a major part of the population.Hanging gardens are popular. Hence, water is omnipresent. In April (the Burmese lunar month Tagou), is held the most important festival, Thingyan (Water Festival) which marks the end and beginning of the Burmese year and lasts five days. On the first day, the children splash passers-by with water. During the next three days, adults throw water at each other. The last day is New Year's Day when spraying with water ceases and the people go to the monasteries to ceremoniously wash the statues of Buddha with perfumed water. Traditionally, people then throw water at each other using foliage which is a symbol of New Year good wishes. In modern times, the feast of water is celebrated with collective sprinkling and the more water a person receives, the more prosperous will be his year. Furthermore, to receive much water is a sign of respect. The origins of these practices are still present in the custom of young people washing the hair of the community's elderly. In May (Kason), at the full moon, the Buddha is celebrated with a major festival. On that occasion, the faithful pour water at the foot of the sacred banyan, Nyaung bin.
Similarly, in Jaipur, capital of Rajasthan in India, at the end of March the feast of Holi is celebrated. It resembles the Burmese Thingyan and there is copious splashing of water as a mark of respect and to gain the good graces of the fates. In Hindu temples, the faithful are regularly sprinkled with "peace water" which has been previously blessed by a priest.
And so we see that water is the privileged vector of traditions and faiths. Sacred and profane water are mingled during festivities to express good wishes for the new year or to pay homage to the Buddha.
On another continent, in another festival, water again plays an important role. Eugène Fromentin described "The festival of the Beans, Aïd El Fould (38)" in 1877 in Algiers:
"An annual festival celebrated by the black population which takes place... when the first beans are harvested... What is its religious significance? Why do they parade a bull swathed in fabrics and decorated with flowers before cutting its throat in a barbaric ceremony? Why the fountain, the lustral water and the blood of the bull with which the crowd is sprinkled as though itwas sacred rain? The festival takes place by the sea... (39)"
And so we find in a country that has been Muslim for over a thousand years, celebrations of water dating back to animist Africa that are still joyously observed by the black community in Algeria. Some authors believe that its origins are extremely ancient since there is a certain resemblance to scenes reproduced in the Tassili frescoes in the Sahara. Clearly, these are festivities originating in sub-Saharan Africa imported into white Africa by populations of former slaves.
In a story told in the Congo (40) which is part of a moving and sensitive collection by Victor Nimy, a mother's love for her children who were swept away by the river forces the river to return them to her. The mother speaks so long to the river and weeps so much on its banks that it finally relents. One can talk to the river and attempt to persuade it because it is like a member of the family. Water is a familiar element and is full of spirits ready to enter into a discussion as though they were in the shade of the palaver tree where ordinary business is conducted. In the Gulf of Guinea, in Ghana in particular, Jean Rouch mentions in one of his films that people speak of "Mammy Water" when they mean their mother the sea, the source of food, and in a colourful festival, the Chama, they offer cassava, gin and tobacco to the spirits of water and sacrifice a white ox to thank them and express their gratitude and respect.
Far and away from the Congo and the Gulf of Guinea, on the banks of the Manzanares, in Madrid, there is still veneration for the miraculous well in the retreat of San Isidoro Labrador (1172). The legend says that a child fell into the well but that the holy man pleaded with it.The waters rose rapidly and miraculously so that the child could be saved from certain death by drowning. In this case, it is not a mother's love that works a miracle but the power of a holy man capable of speaking to the water and convincing it. Saint Francis also humanised water when he spoke of "sorella acqua". In the Jewish religion, the "tzadik, the righteous one, raises the waters in a well". "Water, the element of gentleness, is also the symbol of the pacific elements of rabbinic literature", writes Norbert Lipszyc (41).
(38) It should be spelt "foul" which translates the word bean (instead of "fould").
(39) Eugène Fromentin, "Un été dans le Sahara", Plon, 1879, Paris.
(40)Victor Nimy, "Maa Mboyo, la mère aimante", L'Harmattan, Paris,2002.
(41) Marie-France Caïs, Marie-José Del Rey and Jean-Pierre Ribaut, "L'eau et la vie. Enjeux, perspectives et visions culturelles", Dossier for debate n° 97, Editions Charles Léopold Mayer, Paris,1999.