Myanmar's New Year festival of eerie silence

Myanmar’s New Year festival of Thingyan is the country’s biggest public holiday — normally a week of nationwide celebration and water fights, with soaked revelers partying late into the night.

But this year, in an echo of canceled Easter celebrations elsewhere in the world, the country’s commercial hub Yangon is locked down, with residents confined indoors because of the novel coronavirus.

Food delivery bicycles and rickshaws have commandeered the city’s usually traffic-choked streets after the government ordered people to stay at home unless for essential food and healthcare needs.

By yesterday Myanmar officially had just 38 confirmed cases — including three deaths — but many fear the low number of tests mean the real figures are likely many times higher.

Images from last year’s holiday show a city of drenching cheering crowds dancing to deafening techno beats.

This year the silence is broken only by the cawing of crows and cooing of pigeons, and the motor of an occasional taxi searching for custom.