The festival includes a Ma Tho Thingan (weaving competition for special yellow monks’ robes) for Maha Ant Htoo Kan Thar Pagoda, the donation of 9000 oil lamps, drone duels and flower shows, games and other entertainment.

Hot-air balloon festival is held one week before the full-moon day of Tazaungmone. This festival is very well-known as one of the most famous festival in country.During the festival, giant hot air balloons of various colors and shapes are sent up to the sky. Young people of Taunggyi of crazy about competing in the festival.

Teams from various towns and villages make balloons out of cloth and paper in the shape of birds or animals for the daytime competitions,  and those decorated with tails of small paper lanterns for night. Before setting them off, the teams carry their balloon around town to show off with dance and music. On the night of the full-moon the townsfolk parade around town carrying lanterns and offerings to be placed at the pagoda.

Also known as Tazaungdaing Fire Balloon Festival, the daytime competitions are for balloons made in animal or bird shapes and at night fire balloons are decorated with strings of lanterns or designs made of lights. The balloons have a bamboo frame over which hand-made paper is glued. The hot air is generated by burning rags under the opening. Balloons are judged for size, style, design and the time they remain aloft. On the night of the full-moon Taunggyi townsfolk hold a parade around  the town carrying colorful lanterns.

Yearly festival of shwezigon pagoda is celebrated on the fullmoon day of Tazaungmone and it is one of the most famous and liveliest pagoda festivals in Bagan. The festival has been held since the Bagan dynasty. On the full moon day, there is a ritual of offering a filled alms bowl to a thousand and more monks and novices. Lacquerware, glazed pots and hand woven cotton blankets are sold by villagers living in the region at this great country fair.

The Thanboddhay padoga in Monywa is the only pagoda with this unique shape in the whole country and one of the most intricately decorated temples in the country with an extensive use of vibrant colors housing over 500,000 different Buddha images, row upon row in ascending tiers in niches along the walls.

The pagoda was started on 20th June 1939 and completed on 2nd March 1952. During the second World War thousands of people trying to get away from the war lived on the temple grounds.

If you can go at the beginning of the Myanmar month of Tazaungmone ( usually around November) the pagoda festival is held with musical performances, dancing, lots of food and vendors selling their wares. The villagers from all around come to enjoy the music and dancing. and buy from the various stalls set up by sellers from all over the country.

Myanmar Thanaka, sandalwood and textiles such as cotton blankets and longyi are sold at the various stalls around the area.

The Thanboddhay is just a few kilometers away from the giant Buddhas of the Maha Bodhi Ta Htaung monastery.

In offering robes to the Monks, there is no restriction on when robes should be offered but Mathoe Robe has a special significance. Mathoe robe means the weaving of the robe must be completed and must be offered to the Buddha before dawn. It becomes an unsuccessful work if the weaving of the robes is delayed. Story is that the Buddha would soon renunciate, the Buddha’s mother, Maya, who had been reborn in the Tavatimsa heaven, spent the entire night weaving yellow monk robes for Buddha. Gotami sister of Maya (Buddha’s aunt) continued this tradition and offered new robes annually. In this way robes weaving contests are celebrating in all over Myanmar. During these competitions, contestants work nonstop from night until dawn to weave these garments.

The most significant Mathoe robes weaving contests in Myanmar is the one which celebrated on the Great Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon. Around nine teams of 60 religious associations of the Shwedagon Pagoda usually join in the contests in the evening of the eve of the the full moon day of month Tazaungmone. Each contesting team has six members including the team leader. When the contests stop at 10 P.M, the team which can finish earliest and which can weave the best quality is chosen by judges as the winner and are given the prizes. This ceremony is not only portrays good deeds of Myanmar people but also encourage the act of traditional weaving.

This ceremony will be held around mid of Nov for a couple of days. There will be a market full of herbal leaves, roots, fruits, barks, thorns, tubers and stems of any herbal value from the western wildness of Chindwin River which is sold on the large scale.