Myanmar’s Tazaungdaing Lighting Festival
Day and night for a week in northeastern Myanmar, homemade fireworks woven into hot air balloons’ bamboo frames are released over adoring crowds, showering them in sparks. The Tazaungdaing Lighting Festival is regarded as one of the most beautiful and dangerous celebrations in Asia.
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- Participants release hot air balloons during the Tazaungdaing Festival’s closing ceremony. (YE AUNG THU/AFP/Getty Images)
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- A participant lights small lanterns attached to a hot-air balloon on November 12, 2016, during the Tazaungdaing Lighting Festival at Taunggyi in Myanmar’s northeastern Shan State. At the fire balloon festival, one of the most beautiful and dangerous celebrations in Asia, brightly coloured balloons with hundreds of homemade fireworks woven into their frames are sent soaring into the night sky, showering down cascades of sparks onto adoring crowds. (YE AUNG THU/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Participants prepare to release a hot-air balloon carrying small lanterns November 12, 2016, during the Tazaungdaing Lighting Festival at Taunggyi in Myanmar’s northeastern Shan State. (YE AUNG THU/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Fireworks are ignited while carried off by a hot air balloon during the Tazaungdaing Lighting Festival on November 12, 2016. (YE AUNG THU/AFP/Getty Images)
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- People protect themselves from fireworks November 12, 2016, during the Tazaungdaing Lighting Festival. (YE AUNG THU/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Contestants arrange paper lanterns to decorate a hot air balloon during a hot air balloon competition Nov. 14, 2016, in Taunggyi, eastern state of Myanmar. Balloons made of bamboo and paper are released day and night during the annual six-day festival in Taunggyi. The festival is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Myanmar. (Thein Zaw/AP)
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- Firefighters work after a fireworks-laden hot-air balloon ignited near a car before the balloon had reached a sufficient height during the closing ceremony of the Tazaungdaing Festival at Taunggyi, in Myanmar’s northeastern Shan State, on November 15, 2016. (YE AUNG THU/AFP/Getty Images)
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- A person takes a picture of fireworks during the closing ceremony of the Tazaungdaing Festival at Taunggyi, in Myanmar’s northeastern Shan State, on November 15, 2016. (YE AUNG THU/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Participants release hot air balloons carrying small lanterns during the closing ceremony of the Tazaungdaing Festival at Taunggyi, Myanmar, on November 15, 2016. (YE AUNG THU/AFP/Getty Images)
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