Songkran

Songkran Festival, April 12-15, is the traditional Thai New Year. This is the time for Thais to pay homage to Buddha images, clean their houses, and sprinkle water on their elders in a show of respect. Anyone who ventures out on the streets is likely to get a thorough dousing of water, all in good fun, but also quite welcome at the peak of the hot season.

The festivities at school started with a small sketch to show the students the real meaning behind Songkran. In the picture to the left, a "daughter" is sprinkling water over the hands of her "parents" in order to show respect.

Afterwards, the students lined up to pay respects to the Buddha image and then to the teachers by pouring rose scented water over their hands.

Even the teachers took part in the ceremony. During Songkran, all of the offices and schools were closed and people celebrated for almost a week in some places. Many of our students went out on the back of pick-up trucks armed with buckets of water and water guns. Others stationed themselves on strategic intersections in order to douse motorcyclists or any motorist with their windows wound down. No-one complained about getting wet as April is very hot.

In other calendars


Songkran is also celebrated in Laos (called pee mai lao), Cambodia (called Chaul Chnam Thmey, Cambodian New Year), Myanmar (called Thingyan), and by the Dai people in Yunnan, China (called Water-Splashing Festival). The same day is celebrated in South Asian calendars as well: the Assamese (called Rongali Bihu), Bengali (called Pohela Boishakh), Oriya (called Maha Visuba Sankranthi), Malayali, Punjabi, Sinhalese, and Tamil New Years fall on the same dates, based on the astrological event of the sun beginning its northward journey. And, as mentioned above, there is an Indian Festival called as Sankrant or Makar Sankranti in Marathi, celebrated every year on 14 January. Songkran as such is similar to the Indian festival of Holi, with a lot of splashing of water as paints, colored dusts, and fragances.


The traditional new year celebration in Sri Lanka also coincides with the Thai new year.

In Nepal, the official new year is celebrated on the 1st of Baisakh (Baisākh) according to astrological calendar Vikram Samwat and day often falls somewhere between 12-15 April.

It occurs at the same time as that given by Bede for festivals of Eostre—and Easter weekend occasionally coincides with Songkran (most recently 1979, 1990, and 2001, but not again until 2085).