Just How Longyi Is It?

This Sunday in New York City, the local Burmese community will be celebrating the annual Thingyan Water Festival       — a kind of wet sarong contest where everyone tries to get spashed with water in order to  wash away past misdeeds, provide spiritual renewal and enjoy good luck in the coming year.

The festival marks the start of the Burmese lunar calendar New Year. However, this really occurs in       mid-April—at the height of summer heat in South Asia. Of course, in NYC it could be pretty cold running around in April in a light cotton longyi to start with, but then to be splashed with water? Ever practical, the local Burmese community moved the date of their celebration to mid-July. I've been to a number of these over the years, and they are always great fun. With lots of amazing Burmese food that you won't find in any local restaurants. If you're a foodie, the Thingyan is a truly unique event in NYC. If you like Burmese men in wet sarongs, it's also a rather enjoyable way to spend a leisurely Sunday summer afternoon in lower Manhattan.

It is in no way a gay event, though there are some gay Burmese here. In fact, I have been at dinner parties thrown by all 9 of the gay Burmese men in New York, but that's another story entirely. The Thingyan is about new beginnings, family, food and fun expressed by an Asian culture we rarely see. Which is one reason I like it. Of course, cute guys in wet sheer cotton sheets can be fun too — it's nice to see how longyi it really is. Ahem.

Oddly enough, this weekend, if men in wet sarongs are indeed your pleasure, you don't have to wait till Sunday. Because on Saturday night at the ongoing Desilicious dance parties there will be a wet-sarong contest at midnight.

Some might argue that I'm being culturally insensitive by mixing up sarongs and longyi. To which I can only say I'm sari. Or to quote the title of an old Abbott and Costello movie that is beyond culturally insensitive, and that I loved when I was 10 years old, Pardon My Sarong.

Like my love of bow-ties and my pleasures with kimono when I lived in Japan,  the longyi, the sarong, the sari — all of them are just different ways of gift wrapping ourselves, as we make ourselves present, and a present, to each other.