SONGKRAN FESTIVAL
April 13-15
The Traditional Thai New Year is an occasion for merrymaking in Bangkok
as well as in other parts of the country, with religious ceremonies as well
as public festivities. Anyone who ventures out on the streets is likely
to get a thorough soaking, but all in a spirit of fun and welcome at the
peak of the hot season.
Songkran is celebrated citywide, most notably at Sanam Luang, fronting the
Grand Palace, where the revered Phra Buddha Sihing image is displayed and
bathed by devotees, and at Wisuthasat, where a Miss Songkran beauty contest
is accompanied by merit-making, paying respects to elders and numerous forms
of entertainment, including high-spirited water throwing.
This traditional Thai New Year is celebrated all over the country but nowhere
with more enthusiasm than in Chiang Mai. Part of the celebration is religious,
marked by merit-making ceremonies at local temples, and part is pure pleasure,
with good-natured water throwing, parades, and beauty contests.
The Mons were among Thailand's earliest settlers and a large community of
them still lives in the Phra Padaeng district of Samut Prakan province,
just south of Bangkok. They, too, celebrate the start of the old former
solar new year with a thorough cleaning of the house, religious observances,
and colourful parades.
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