Scenes of Songkran (Water Fights in the Thai Streets)
Thais, Laotians, Cambodians, and Burmese are celebrating new years fo three days.
The streets outside my apartment in Chiang Mai are thronging with kids and adults carrying super soakers and buckets of water. If you step outside, it is advisable to put your phone in a plastic bag. Look at someone wrong, and you’re liable to get drenched in cold water! But you’ll be happy to be wet; it was 37°C (98°F) at 1 pm today.
On my way in from the CNX airport after returning from Laos on Wednesday April 12, the party was already getting started. Technically Songkran runs from April 13-15.
The three-day holiday celebrates the new year on the Buddhist and Hindu solar calendars used in Southeast Asia. The new year goes by different names (Pi Mi Lao in Laos, Thingyan in Myanmar, Sangkranta in Cambodia, Po Shui Jie in Xishuangbana region of Southern China) in different countries, but their celebrations also include the tradition of splashing people with water.
Thailand still uses the Chinese zodiac signs, so tomorrow begins the year of the rabbit and year 2566 B.E. (Buddhist Era—2566 years since the death of the Buddha1).
Revelers will set up barrels of water along the street and wait for combatants to walk by and then attack with buckets or water guns. Generally speaking, you can get by without being totally soaked if you are obviously not participating. But not always (I saw some drunken foreigners harassing people who were just trying to go down the street).
In Chiang Mai, most of the action is concentrated around the canal road.
The canal goes around the whole city wall. Inside there are a lot of temples, cafes, and hostels. At the north (Chang Phuek) and south gates (Chang Mai Gate), there are bustling night markets. Families and friends will fill the back of their cars and drive down and take a lap around the old city.
Others will drive down on the road on motorcycles with their water guns cocked.
Some are just looking to get wet. They’ll even stop their motorbikes next to a crowd and invite everyone to drench them.
I’m about to get wet.
Hoses will be running all day to fill up the buckets. Some people even haul along huge ice blocks in their truck beds to keep the water extra cold. It looks like they may have been hit with the ol ice bucket treatment.
Sometimes you can just use the hose itself as a weapon.
In Chiang Mai (and Northern Thailand), festivals are usually more intensely celebrated than in Bangkok. April 13-15 is always a good time to visit. If Chinese New Year is Spring Festival, Thai New Year is more like Summer Festival. There are music festivals elsewhere in the country timed to Songkran.
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Actually, 2566 BE began on January 1. Prime Minister Phibunsongkhram set the year to change with the Western New Year in 1941.