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From Abroad

Songkran is the Thai New Year. It always falls on April 13-15th and is 543 years ahead of the Western calendar because the Thai calendar coincides with the birth of Buddha in 543 BC, meaning it is 2552 in Thailand right now!

When we were planning our Easter trip to Thailand we didn’t realize it was Thai New Year, or what a big deal Songkran really was, but we soon found out.

Our first day in Bangkok we saw people with bowls of water and painted faces lining the street getting ready for a parade. People were passing out tourist brochures that gave a low down on Songkran: it was a time for washing, cleaning, and blessing with scented water and white paint. Today, those traditions have given way to an all-out three day water war.

We were in Hui-Hin on the Southern Gulf Coast of Thailand. Our first day, walking through the streets, we kept getting sprayed by water guns and I got a bucket of water thrown on me, which I was not pleased about. The next day we realized we should just join in on the fun, as all the other Westerners (which possibly outnumbered the locals) were doing. We bought water guns and took to the streets!

People posted up outside of stores and restaurants, and really hardcore people had water hoses and buckets of water they threw on people. You could also see tons of people in the back of trucks with huge vats of water to pour on by-standers as they drove by.

It’s really hard to explain Songkran: it’s one of those things that you had to be there for. Just imagine a whole town in the midst of a huge water war. Everyone gets involved. And you also get painted on. Those are the only ways I can think of describing Songkran!

An example of people in the back of the truck scenario.
People on the side of the street waiting for innocent passer-byes (mainly me).
Me pretending to be Rambo after a hard day of fighting (we were like only 30 miles from Myanmar, so that joke went on all week!)