TRADITIONS AND FESTIVITIES

Traditions and festivities are the heartbeat of a nation, connecting the past with the present. Traditions are created and recreated, refined, elevated, or left behind, as the nation grows—shedding old skin for healthier growth, yet holding firm to its core. Tradition gifts us stories, rich with lessons and inspiration, from which we build our lives and, in turn, elevate its very essence.

100 years ago when our forefathers gained world-class education and were informed about the new world order, they gathered among themselves  to organize their Karen people as a progressive nation. They pushed for a national day to bring all our tribes and clans and creeds to come together under a national flag so as to rise as a modern nation. Recognition of Karen New Year day as a national holiday was a victory through collaboration with other nations in a skillful political acumen. The struggle  they have gone through is to elevate us, forming a new society embracing a new world order. 

We must rethink and reorganize our approach to festivities and traditions to foster purposeful unity that brings together all tribes, clans, groups, and subgroups as we move toward national progress in the new world order envisioned by our forebears. Blaming war for our current social and educational decline is an inadequate excuse, especially since many gatherings occur in places far from war zones, such as America, Thailand, and even conflict-free parts of Karen State. 

Today, we risk becoming too comfortable living in the vestiges of an early form of human society. A sign of our organizational decline is in our habitual large gatherings for communal festivals roaming aimlessly in open fields. In large gatherings we bring in bamboo baskets, bamboo sticks, all kinds of tribal artifacts to portray ourselves as primitive beings. Instead of elevating our heritage in national holiday festivities to inspire as a nation, we degrade it. We have strayed from the national vision set forth by our forefathers.

Many gatherings also encourage youth to run aimlessly after a ball called soccer tournament. Most do not promote friendly competition or sportsmanship, frequently—sampling data in the U.S. summer every year— ending in kick-boxing of blood-headed tribal savagery. Sport is to bring recreation activities, improve cardiovascular health, and social gathering of personal contact. Ending up in physical fights does not promote that, but shame of incivility. Football tournaments for fundraising are the wrong kind of empowerment. They neither build character in youth nor effectively raise funds to make a meaningful impact.

Music indeed has the power to inspire, elevating a nation’s spirit to greater heights. The Karen people sing well everywhere, every week; it is a defining characteristic of our poetic culture. We can sing together on a global scale and show unity. A global Karen choir—one hundred thousand voices strong—joins in a virtual choir, singing glory to Kawthoolei and honoring the land of our ancestors. The largest virtual choir ever recorded featured 17,572 choristers from 129 countries, assembled in 2020 during the COVID-19 global pandemic. Musicians and instrumentalists, together with sound engineers, craft a symphony that resonates across borders, calling the entire Karen population around the world to rise and make their voices resound across the universe. The time has come to rebuild our homeland, unleashing the potential endowed by our Creator.

The path forward demands intellectual and cultural advancement, not mere displays of antiquated practices that draw us backward.

Festivities and the Celebration of Traditions

Now, we narrowly define our identity through singing, dancing, and wearing traditional attire in endless festivities, accompanied by one sport tournament after another, inadvertently herding our children to overlook the value of time in a globally hyper-competitive age. Kawthoolei may possess open land and fertile soil, but without the means to defend it with advanced technology and astute diplomacy, our ancestral land risks being owned and managed by those who wield wealth and raw power. This generation is a blessed generation, surrounded by free learning resources in high quality and quantity. But time wasted without nurturing growth turns this blessing into an impending curse.

We play football at every turn—whether for fundraising, on solemn memorial days, or even the most trivial occasions. Thousands of our youth gather aimlessly under the open sky, caught in a sport obsession that strips away deeper meaning under the trends created by community organizers. Football tournament is often organized by probably well-meaning yet  thoughtless community leaders and politicians around the border who view that the height of an armed revolution is the perfect time for a leisurely game as an opportune moment for reprieve, creating the illusion that youth running around in the scorching sun is somehow advancing the liberation movement.

Often, we fail to observe solemn days like Karen Martyrs' Day as sacred moments for reflection, meant to renew our spirit and honor those who sacrificed their lives for our freedom, a cause still unfinished. Instead, we impulsively arrange football tournaments, as if forgetting that a moment of silence might serve us better than a moment of scoring goals, clapping, and screaming at good-looking boys chasing an aimless ball. Many of these games devolve into kick-boxing matches among players and spectators, their blood boiling with passion for the sport and under the scorching sun. Private disputes turn into public spectacles, with these brawls broadcast on social media for a global audience, transforming savagery and disrespect into a public disgrace—a san-kone-myay-lay national shame. In computer science terms, it’s "garbage in, garbage out."  

Our obsession with football tournaments is more consuming than building up the full potential of our youth.

To rebuild Kawthoolei Nation, there needs a better fiber.

In the same month of August where we commemorate those who have fallen for an unfinished cause, we also celebrate the wrist-tying ceremony—a symbol of unity, binding us together as we seek safety and protection of our spirit during the height of the tropical rainy season, with rain falling daily and floods everywhere. This ceremony serves as a national celebration of belonging, yet if we dwell solely in tradition without letting it inspire progress, that tradition risks pulling us backward into a tribal gathering with funny superstition rather than propelling us forward as a nation with reason.  

In these formal mass wrist-tying ceremonies, we unwittingly encourage a weak character among our youth, turning the occasion into a social pursuit where boys chase girls and girls are caught up in the distraction, thereby desanctifying the ceremony's true purpose as a solemn homecoming. Sloppy behavior in sacred ritual is disrespectful. Instead of finding health and happiness, our guardian spirits may leave feeling disheartened and distressed. 

Such a beautiful tradition, born from indigenous belief and rich in symbolism—the sticky rice balls symbolizing togetherness, the sugar cane representing the continuity of life through offspring, the white thread of unification, and the bamboo spatula calling the spirit home—must not be reduced to a meaningless social gathering. The beauty of these practices can be preserved and promoted to inspire progress and unity as we move forward as a nation. Otherwise, the misuse is disrespectful to the practice in our native belief of spirit homecoming. 

These public events find their highest purpose in recognizing youth who excel academically, earn creative awards, and demonstrate innovation in national and international competitions, as well as adults whose talents make impactful contributions. Here, the traditional festival gains deeper meaning by honoring role models whose abilities benefit the nation.

Good roots that run deep make one to flourish; true traditions uplift, not stifle growth.

A nation that grows finds its healthy roots. 

Ancient mythology and cultural celebration met cutting-edge technology in 2024, as the Lunar New Year (Chinese New Year) was celebrated as a timeless symbol brought to life with modern marvels. Thousands of synchronized drones illuminated the night sky, forming a thousand-foot-long Dragon King—a revered figure in Chinese mythology—that captivated world audiences from Nanning in southern China to Singapore’s Marina Bay, Dubai in the Middle East, and California on the American West Coast. The night skies of the 21st century have truly become a canvas for creativity, where the universal language of light and innovation transcends geographical boundaries, connecting people through the shared wonder of drone displays. Thailand held a similar spectacle in April 2024 during their Songkran New Year celebrations.

Let us illuminate the wisdom of our past with the ingenuity of the present to craft a future worthy of our ancestors' vision.