Myanmar New Year's Day is a time for people to visit the elders and pay obedience by gadaw 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 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".
