Songkran Festival All Wet…just in time for spring mating season!

(This article was published in International Travel News way back in Feb. 1981.)

     Thanks to modern technology, travelers whiz around the globe via jumbo jets with the world seeming to shrink as previously remote corners become quickly and easily assessable. Yet, cultures from hemisphere to hemisphere remain as diverse as ever.

     If you visit Thailand; especially the northern village of Chiang Mai from April 13-15, you will agree that even a rocket ship could do little to narrow the culture gap between that country and ours!

     This is the time of the Songkran Festival.  Southeast Asians know it as the lunar New Year, but visitors recognize Songkran as the ‘water-throwing’ festival. 

     The first day of this event is a public holiday.  Tens of thousands of local residents and Thais from the south country join to literally drench one another.

     Originally, Songkran was a highly religious time of ‘bathing the Buddha.’ Although the festival probably derives from ancient fertility rites, there is another reason water is so important.  Mid-April is the peak of Thailand’s dry season, and all of Buddha’s creatures and creations thirst for the cooling waters that are unleashed.

     The festival starts out slowly, as people march to their temples, or wats, in colorful native costumes.  They sprinkle a little water here and there as they await the grand procession.  Leading the group is a handful of monks clad in bright yellow robes.

     The costumes of parade participants are simply stunning as is the entertainment.  Music consists of young men playing Java pipes, gongs, cymbals and conical, 12-foot-long drums.  Other men take part in the ramwong folk dance, while young women in burgundy costumes perform the sensuous fawn leap.

     Foreigners hardly notice the passing out of silver bowls and squirt guns, but after the chant of “Sawadee Pimai,” meaning “Happy New Year,” all hell breaks loose!

     Most youngsters set out to dump water on members of the opposite sex, for Songkran has long been known to bring a boy and girl together.  In fact, this type of courting activity is encouraged by their parents.  No wonder most Thai weddings occur prior to the June monsoon season!

     I guess it would be trite to say that the Songkran Festival is good clean fun!  But when you go, remember not to take along your good clothes, any important papers, a camera or wristwatch.  Maybe bring a washrag and a bar of soap!