page_title: Karen people
section_title: Holidays
hierarchical_section_title: Karen people / Culture / Holidays
caption_attribution_description: Kayin cultural dance,don dance, dances in Kayin state(Near Kauke Ka Latt pagoda)
context_page_description: The Karen are an ethnolinguistic group of Sino-Tibetan language-speaking ethnic groups. The group as a whole is heterogeneous and disparate as many Karen ethnic groups do not associate or identify with each other culturally or linguistically. These Karen groups reside primarily in Kayin State, southern and southeastern Myanmar. The Karen, approximately five million people, account for approximately seven per cent of the Burmese population. Many Karen have migrated to Thailand, having settled mostly on the Thailand–Myanmar border. A few Karen have settled in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India, and other Southeast Asian and East Asian countries.
  The Karen groups as a whole are often confused with the Padaung tribe, best known for the neck rings worn by their women, but they are just one sub-group of Red Karens, one of the tribes of Kayah in Kayah State, Myanmar.
  Some of the Karen, led primarily by the Karen National Union, have waged war against the Burmese government since early-1949. The aim of the KNU at first was independence. Since 1976 the armed group has called for a federal system rather than an independent Karen State.
context_section_description: The Karen New Year (ကညီနံၣ်ထီၣ်သီ) is one of the major holidays that the Karen people celebrate. The date of Karen New Year day varies because the Karen people use the lunar calendar. The new year day usually fall on December–January.
  Karen Wrist Tying(ကညီလါခူးကံၢ်စု) is an important Karen holiday. This holiday is observed annually in August.
caption: Karen traditional don dance team
exif: {"Image Make": "Xiaomi", "Image Model": "MI 6X", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Snapseed 2.0", "Image DateTime": "2018:06:23 19:19:30", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "208", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "N", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[16, 49, 23999/10000]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "E", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[97, 38, 304887/10000]", "GPS GPSAltitudeRef": "1", "GPS GPSAltitude": "9693/250", "GPS GPSTimeStamp": "[3, 19, 51]", "GPS GPSProcessingMethod": "ASCII", "GPS GPSDate": "2018:06:23", "Image GPSInfo": "671", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/8499", "EXIF FNumber": "7/4", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Unidentified", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF Tag 0x8889": "HHT", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2018:06:23 09:49:50", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2018:06:23 09:49:50", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "13053/1000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "161/100", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "99/10", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "407/100", "EXIF SubSecTime": "915415", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "915415", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "915415", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3489", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2614", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "888", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "4", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}