The big day starts early with a procession called the "shinlaung hlè pwe" () to the monastery, the young boy dressed in resplendent silks embroidered with gold as a royal prince or king, shielded from the sun by a gold umbrella and led on horseback by an orchestral band headed by a clown with a moustache called "U Shwe Yoe" holding a parasol and dancing merrily. This ritual symbolises Prince Siddhartha's departure from the royal palace with its sensuous pleasures and luxuries at the age of twenty nine, leaving his wife and newborn son in search of the Four Noble Truths. Behind his horse follows the family, his proud parents carrying the monastic robes and other eight requisites, called "pareihkara shippa" () and his sisters or young village maidens carrying ceremonial boxes of paan ( "kundaung gaing") and lotus blossoms ( "pandaung gaing") all in their best silks with the rest of the joyous party completing the procession. The Shwedagon Pagoda is invariably a shinbyu procession's first port of call in Yangon. The novice-to-be ( "shinlaung") may be the centre of attention, but his sister may at the same ceremony have an ear-piercing ( "na htwin") with a gold needle, dressed up as a royal princess herself.