How was April named after :)

           

           April comes from the latin word apherire,to open. April was named after apherire because April is the month that the flowers start to open.

              In the Gregorian calendar,April is the fourth month. The name is derived from the Latin 'aprilis', either from the Latin word 'aperire' which means 'to open', probably a reference to growing plants in spring, or from the Etruscan name 'Apru' for 'Aphrodite'. In the Roman calendar, April was the second month but following Julius Caesar's reform, it became the fourth month.  

              

   
              

What’s So Special About The Month of April?

                  I’m not going to be pulling any April Fool’s Day jokes on anyone, but that is the first thing you think about when April comes around. Just like March, in like a lion, out like a lamb.Well, April comes in just plain lyin’.

                 This April also brings a another alert, the Conficker threat. You probably have heard about it on the news or other articles that there has been a dormant infection that could cause some havoc today.

                 There is more to April too! April is Water Festival Month and New Year Month in Myanmar(Burma).  There are countless other awareness days and holidays throughout the month. I could go on on…but the big item that caught my eye is that April is Financial Literacy Month in the United States.

                                               Padauk Flower in April, Myanmar.

Cherry Blossom in April.

Poems for April

April's Charms by William Henry Davies

When April scatters charms of primrose gold
Among the copper leaves in thickets old,
And singing skylarks from the meadows rise,
To twinkle like black stars in sunny skies;

When I can hear the small woodpecker ring
Time on a tree for all the birds that sing;
And hear the pleasant cuckoo, loud and long --
The simple bird that thinks two notes a song;

When I can hear the woodland brook, that could
Not drown a babe, with all his threatening mood;
Upon these banks the violets make their home,
And let a few small strawberry vlossoms come:

When I go forth on such a pleasant day,
One breath outdoors takes all my cares away;
It goes like heavy smoke, when flames take hold
Of wood that's green and fill a grate with gold.

An April Night by Lucy Maud Montgomery

The moon comes up o'er the deeps of the woods,
And the long, low dingles that hide in the hills,
Where the ancient beeches are moist with buds
Over the pools and the whimpering rills;

And with her the mists, like dryads that creep
From their oaks, or the spirits of pine-hid springs,
Who hold, while the eyes of the world are asleep,
With the wind on the hills their gay revellings.

Down on the marshlands with flicker and glow
Wanders Will-o'-the-Wisp through the night,
Seeking for witch-gold lost long ago
By the glimmer of goblin lantern-light.

The night is a sorceress, dusk-eyed and dear,
Akin to all eerie and elfin things,
Who weaves about us in meadow and mere
The spell of a hundred vanished Springs.

April Violet by Raymond A. Foss

A new bloom
frilly and pink
between the rich and green
grafted and grown by your hands
warmed in the sun
given to me
gone but remembered
preserved in resin,
and memory

Personalities from April Born

Personality traits for April Month
              Lol....when I'm writing this post I feel most of these personalities are seem to correct. :)

Active and dynamic
Decisive and hateful but tends to regret
Attractive and Affectionate to oneself
Strong mentality
Loves attention
Diplomatic
Consoling
Friendly and solves people's problems
Brave and fearless
Loving and caring
Emotional
Adventurous
Suave and Generous
Revengeful
Aggressive
Hasty
Good memory
Moving
Motivate oneself and the others
Sickness usually the head and chest
Easily get too jealous

Pictures of April

Pictures for Thingyan Festival in April, Myanmar
         Padauk Flower, whenever you see this flower you will automatically know it is the    time  for Myanmar New Year festival.

                          Celebrating Thingyan Festival dance in April in Myanmar.

                                   Water Festival(Thingyan) in Myanmar.

                                      Water Festival(Thingyan) in Myanmar.

Celebrating Thingyan Festival dances in April in Myanmar. 

                         Celebrating Thingyan Festival dance in April in Myanmar.

                         Celebrating Thingyan Festival dance in April in Myanmar.

Padauk Flower, whenever you see this flower you will automatically know it is the time for Myanmar New Year festival.

                       Celebrating Thingyan Festival dance in April in Myanmar.

What is Thingyan?

Thingyan

            Thingyan  is the Burmese New Year Water Festival and usually falls around mid-April (the Burmese month of Tagu). It is a Buddhist festival celebrated over a period of four to five days culminating in the new year. Formerly the dates of the Thingyan festival are calculated according to the traditional Burmese lunisolar calendar, but now fixed to Gregorian calendar 13 to 16 April; it often coincides with Easter. 
               The dates of the festival are observed as the most important public holiday throughout Burma and are part of the summer holidays at the end of the school year. Water-throwing or dousing one another from any shape or form of vessel or device that delivers water is the distinguishing feature of this festival and may be done on the first four days of the festival. However, in most parts of the country, it does not begin in earnest until the second day. Thingyan is comparable to other new year festivities in Theravada Buddhist areas of Southeast Asia such as Lao New Year, Cambodian New Year and Songkran in Thailand.

History
                Thingyan is originated from the Buddhist version of a Hindu myth. The King of Brahmas called Arsi, lost a wager to the King of Devas, Śakra(Thagya Min), who decapitated Arsi as agreed but the head of an elephant was put onto the Brahma's body who then became Ganesha. The Brahma was so powerful that if the head were thrown into the sea it would dry up immediately. If it were thrown onto land it would be scorched. If it were thrown up into the air the sky would burst into flames. Sakra therefore ordained that the Brahma's head be carried by one princess devi after another taking turns for a year each. The new year henceforth has come to signify the changing of hands of the Brahma's head.

Thingyan Eve

The eve of Thingyan, the first day of the festival called a-kyo nei , is the start of a variety of religious activities. Buddhists are expected to observe the Eight Precepts, more than the basic Five Precepts, including having only one meal before noon. Thingyan is a time whenuposatha observance days, similar to the Christian sabbath, are held. Alms and offerings are laid before monks in their monasteries and offerings of a green coconut with its stalk intact encircled by bunches of green bananas and sprigs ofthabyay or jambul (Syzygium cumini) before the Buddha images over which scented water is poured in a ceremonial washing from the head down. 

Mandalay legendary Thingyan float Myoma arrives to perform in front of Mandalay City Hall in Mandalay, Myanmar on 12 April 2012.

By nightfall, the real fun begins with music, song and dance, merrymaking and general gaiety in anticipation of the water festival. In every neighbourhood pavilions or stages, with festive names and made from bamboo, wood and beautifully decorated papier mache, have sprung up overnight. Local belles have been rehearsing for weeks and even years, in the run-up to the great event in song and dance in chorus lines, each band of girls uniformly dressed in colourful tops and skirts and garlanded in flowers and tinsel. They wear fragrant thanaka - a paste of the ground bark of Murraya paniculata which acts as both sunblock and astringent - on their faces, and sweet-scented yellow padauk blossoms in their hair. The padauk (Pterocarpus macrocarpus) blooms but one day each year during Thingyan and is popularly known as the "Thingyan flower". Large crowds of revellers, on foot, bicycles and motorbikes, and in opentop jeeps and trucks, will do the rounds of all the mandat, some making their own music and most of the womenfolk wearingthanaka and padauk. Floats, gaily decorated and lit up, also with festive names and carrying an orchestra as well as dozens of amorous young men on each of them, will roam the streets stopping at every mandat exchanging songs specially written for the festival including the Thingyan classics that everyone knows, and performing than gyat (similar to rapping but one man leads and the rest bellows at the top of their voices making fun of and criticising whatever is wrong in the country today such as fashion, consumerism, runaway inflation, crime, drugs, AIDS, corruption, inept politicians etc.). It is indeed a time for letting go, a major safety valve for stress and simmering discontent. There will be the usual spate of accidents and incidents from drink driving or just reckless driving in crowded streets full of revellers and all manner of vehicles, as well as drunkenness, arguments and brawling which the authorities have to be prepared for at this time of the year. Generally however friendliness and goodwill prevail along with some boisterous jollity.

New Year's Day   It is a time for people to visit the elders and pay obeisance bygadaw (also called shihko) with a traditional offering of water in a terracotta pot and shampoo. Young people perform hairwashing for the elderly often in the traditional manner with shampoo beans (Acacia rugata) and bark. Many make new year resolutions, generally in the mending of ways and doing meritorious deeds for their karma. Releasing fish is another time-honoured tradition on this day; fish are rescued from lakes and rivers drying up under the hot sun, then kept in huge glazed earthen pots and jars before releasing into larger lakes and rivers with a prayer and a wish saying "I release you once, you release me ten times".Thingyan (a-hka dwin) is also a favourite time for shinbyu, novitiation ceremonies for boys in the tradition of Theravada Buddhism when they will join the monks (Sangha) and spend a short time, perhaps longer, in a monastery immersed in the teachings of the Buddha, the Dharma. It is akin to rites of passage or coming of age ceremonies in other religions.

On the New Year's Day, people make food donations called satuditha (စတုဒီသာ) at various places. They typically provide free food to those participating in the new year's celebrations.

Myanmar New Year Festival

Thingyan, Myanmar Water Festival

                   Thingyan, Myanmar Water Festival, takes place toward the end of the hot, dry season and ushers in the Myanmar New Year. This festival is also celebrated in neighboring Theravada Buddhist countries; Songkranin Thailand and Laos,Chaul Chnam Thmeyin Cambodia.

                 The festival lasts three or five days. Standing on bamboo stages erected along the streets, people splash water on passersby. Powerful water pipes douse people driving by in jeeps and trucks.

                   Children use water pistols to drench their friends, relatives, and anyone else in range - only monks and the elderly are safe.

                 The water symbolizes the washing away of the previous year's bad luck and sins. On New Year's Day itself, all the water-throwing ends. This day is celebrated by releasing captive fish and birds as acts of merit, and special feasts are held for monks.

THINGYAN WATER FESTIVAL Throughout Myanmar

Apr. 13 - 16, 2012
The Burmese New Year will be celebrated in April and everybody joins in the fun of dousing each other with water. Youths go out for the enjoyment, while elder people take retreat in monasteries and pagodas to perform meritorious deeds. One cannot avoid of getting very wet because everyone throws water at everybody. People drive through the city in open cars and there are stages along the street where people throw water. During this time, everything is closed: restaurants, shops, markets, Museum, etc.

About April

           April is commonly associated with the season of spring in the Northern hemisphere and autumn in the Southern hemisphere, where it is the seasonal equivalent to October in the Northern hemisphere and vice versa.

          April starts on the same day of the week as July in all years, and January in leap years. April ends on the same day of the week as December every year. It became the fourth month of the calendar year.

          The Burmese new year usually falls in April (Approximately April 17). The part of the month of Tagu before the new year is call Hnaung Tagu and the later part of the month of Tagu after the new year is called Oo Tagu. For example, just saying "1373, Tagu" is not complete. Because "1373 Oo Tagu" on Burmese calendar corresponds to 2011 on Gregorian calendar and "1373 Hnaung Tagu" on Burmese calendar corresponds to 2012 on Gregorian calendar. Similarly, if the Burmese new year is in the month of Kason, the part of the month of Kason before the new year is called "Hnaung Kason".

            The Burmese New Year will be celebrated in April and everybody joins in the fun of dousing each other with water. Youths go out for the enjoyment, while elder people take retreat in monasteries and pagodas to perform meritorious deeds. One cannot avoid of getting very wet because everyone throws water at everybody. People drive through the city in open cars and there are stages along the street where people throw water. During this time, everything is closed: restaurants, shops, markets, Museum, etc.