SONGKRAN THAI NEW YEAR

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What a great day! The whole town alive and buzzing, you can feel the energy and happiness all around. Everyone in good spirits and having so much fun from the very young to the very old. The simple act of throwing water over someone bringing happiness and cleansing to start the new year afresh. People lining the streets, shops, houses with large barrels of water sometimes freezing cold! and allowing everyone to refill there pot, water pistols and pans, anything that will hold water. Cars, vans and scooters going up and down the street, even the fire truck was out. Never had so much fun in ages. So good to see everyone laughing and smiling! Happy Thai New Year!

Now for the detail.

The Songkran Festival is celebrated in Thailand as the traditional New Year's Day from 13 to 15 April. It coincides with the New Year of many calendars of South and South East Asia.

Songkran has traditionally been celebrated as the New Year for many centuries, and is believed to have been adapted from the Sankrati Hindu Festival. It is now observed nationwide, even in the far south. However, the most famous Songkran celebrations are still in the northern city of Chiang Mai, where it continues for six days and even longer.


The most obvious celebration of Songkran is the throwing of water upon others. Thais roam the streets with containers of water or water guns. In addition, many Thais will have small bowls of beige colored talc sold cheaply and mixed with water which is then smeared on the faces and bodies of random passersby as a blessing for the new year. Sometimes this talc is mixed with menthol. It is very common to have groups of Thais post themselves at the side of roads or corners of intersections with garden hoses or large new plastic trash cans filled with water (typically ice cold) that is used to drench sidewalkers and random vehicles (taxis, cars, motorcycles, tuk tuks) that come within watering range. Songkran is traditionally a time to visit and pay respects to elders, including family members, friends, neighbors, and monks. The songkran festival is counted as a new life festivity in which many around the world take part in, but mostly focused in the country of Thailand. Besides the throwing of water, people celebrating Songkran as a Buddhist Festival may also go to a Buddhist monastery to pray and give food to monks. They may also cleanse Buddha images from household shrines as well as Buddha images at monasteries by gently pouring water mixed with a Thai fragrance over them. It is believed that doing this will bring good luck and prosperity for the New Year. In many cities, such as Chiang Mai, the Buddha images from all of the city's important monasteries are paraded through the streets so that people can toss water at them, ritually 'bathing' the images, as they pass by on decorated floats. In northern Thailand, people may carry handfuls of sand to their neighborhood monastery in order to recompense the dirt that they have carried away on their feet during the rest of the year. The water is meant as a symbol of cleansing washing all of the bad away and it is sometimes filled with fragrant herbs when celebrated in the traditional manner.

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Photos

Preparation
Matt, Claire and Marie

Comments

[Carol]

Sounds fab, but certainly makes you shiver when reading this from a chilly Scottish spring afternoon!

[Isobel MacNaughtan]

SONGKRAN THAI NEW YEAR
Happy New Year May