Pic’ in the Picture: What’s the fuss about the Dragon?

The picture below was taken at the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, Myanmar (Burma), the biggest and most important temple of Myanmar.

For buddhists, it’s not the month or the year that are of importance, but the day of the week that you are born. The people on this picture are without doubt born on a Saturday. The symbol for Saturday is a fire-breathing dragon (on the very lower edge of the picture), placed at the south-west corner of every buddhist temple in Myanmar and connected with the planet Saturn. People born on a Saturday come here to worship the dragon by putting water over its head, lighting candles and offering flowers. Like this, they believe to receive luck, happiness and fortune.

While in Myanmar, it is also a very common question to ask “What day are you born?”. And the funniest thing is probably that they deduce all kind of character traits from this fact. As such, Jean-Christophe, born on a Saturday (and thus a Dragon) is supposed to be somebody who “puts value on grace and splendour” (???) and Vera, born on a Friday and thus a guinea pig (connected with the planet Venus), is supposed to be somebody with a long life and who talks a lot…

;-)

Vera & Jean-Christophe