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Thailand's most celebrated festival is the Songkran
Festival. It starts on 13th April and lasts between
three to ten days, depending on where you are in
Thailand. The word Songkran is from Sanskrit,
meaning the beginning of a new solar year. The
festival begins on 13th April and everyone is awakened
at dawn tot he sound of firecrackers used to drive away
evil spirits. This is the day when everything is
scrupulously cleaned from the self, clothes, Buddha
images, to houses, shops and streets in preparation for
the New Year.
14th April is the day between the old year and the
new year. It is customary not to quarrel or use harsh
words on one another. The morning is spent shopping and
preparing food for the following day, while the
afternoon is reserved for visiting a temple in the
neighborhood. It is imperative that they carry a fistful
of sand with them to compensate for the dirt that they
have carried away from the temple during their visits
throughout the year. The sand is then sculpted into
stupa-shaped piles.
15th April marks the New Year's Day called Wan
Phya Wan. It is a day of great importance. It is
customary to visit the temple early in the morning to
take food to the monks, as a form of merit making and
later in the afternoon to return to place small banners,
known as Thung, on the top of the stupas built
the day before.
After that, visits to family and relatives are
carried out. The gifts during the visit include areca
nuts, clove leaves, turmeric water and acacia oil.
Family members ask for forgiveness from their respected
elders for any wrong doings they may have committed
throughout the year and to receive their blessings for
the year to come. At the end of this ceremony, a little
water is sprinkled onto the hands and heads of the old
people as a blessing and then quite a lot is thrown at
the rest of the family in anticipation of the water wars
that are to follow.
Traditionally water should be thrown on 16th April
but nowadays it is not unusual for water to be thrown
throughout the whole of the Songkran festival. Armed
with high-powered water pistols, bowls, buckets or
anything that will hold water revelers gather on the
streets to throw water at one another. Even the
policemen directing traffic are not spared. Each and
every participant is expected to receive the 'blessing'
with good humor.
If you want to stay dry and still do not want to miss
the fun, you can always view the scene from inside an
air-conditioned tourist bus -- just remember not to open
the windows.
To attract tourists, other activities are held in big
cities. These include the sand-stupa building contests,
local cultural performances and Miss Songkran Beauty
Queen Contests. Demonstrations of Thai cooking and
handicraft making are also held at well-known hotels in
cities like Bangkok. |
