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If you're traveling in Thailand during April,
brace yourself for one of Southeast Asia's most
raucous holidays. For one joyful week, Thai
people take to the streets for the Songkran
festival, a waterlogged celebration of the Thai
new year. In the midst of parades and street
parties, people customarily douse each other
with buckets of water and handfuls of baby powder.
In Thailand, this is the festival that people
spends months looking forward to, and it's a
celebration that visitors are lucky to witness.
Social decorum is thrown to the wayside, public
revelry/drunkenness becomes a norm, and those
conspicuous sweat stains on your T-shirts will
no longer be a cause for embarrassment once
the water start flying. Celebrants take no exception,
whether you're a businessman or backpacker,
every person on the street is a target for buckets
of water or high-tech waterguns wielded by children.
In most of Thailand, this holiday lasts for
three or four days, but Chiang Mai becomes the
Bourbon Street of the country, with festivities
lasting up to nine days.
The custom of throwing water originated as
a sign of respect. Traditionally, communities
would pay respect to elders and children to
parents by sprinkling water on their hands as
a cleansing of bad fortune and gesture of good
luck. However, people may sometimes bypass the
traditions of the ritual as they get caught
up in the fun. After all, Songkran takes place
during the peak of Thailand's dry season; the
hottest time of the year. Though Songkran has
fast become a nonstop party of Animal House
proportion, the origins of the festival are
rooted in the home. Traditionally, the holiday
was about honouring parents and elders, with
children coming home to see their families and
offer gifts to them.
People also go to temples on this holiday,
often bringing handfuls of sand to compensate
for the dirt they carried away on their feet
throughout the year. Visitors pray, offer food
to monks, and help clean Buddha images in the
wats. If you're in a city like Chiang Mai for
Songktran, don't be surprised to see Buddha
statues paraded through the streets. This allows
people to throw water on the statues as they
pass by, cleaning them in the middle of the
festivities.
Despite the debaucherous atmosphere, one should
bear in mind that as a visitor to Thailand,
enthusiasm for local festivals is widely appreciated.
Friendly, festive Thai people will encourage
you to take part in the revelry, but remember
that despite the free-flowing water (and whiskey),
Songkran is still a family event, and the street
parties should remain PG, at least during the
daytime. Among Thai people, it goes without
saying that daily drenchings are to be expected.
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