Songkran, the wet new year

April 9, 2018By The Golden ScopePosted in Travel

Every year in Thailand, on days from 13 to 16 April, people celebrate the New Year.

It is primarily a religious festival, called Songkran, that marks the beginning of the buddisth year but currently it has a different more modern and festive meaning.

The tradition request offers water, in the temples images/statues of Buddha are bathed with water splashes or immersing them in the water, all this in order to receive a blessing.

Symbolically also each house must be washed to remove every evil action of the past year.

The recurrence is more known, especially by foreigners as the “Water Festival”. During these days, the temperature that reach 40 °, is mitigated by thousands of liters of water coming from everywhere and wetting everyone!

The streets across the nation are full of young people armed with water pistols spraying anyone…. undoubtedly an excellent remedy against the heat…

Anyone in that area is involved in a kind of collective madness because, in addition to regular buckets of water, often they mixed water with flour or indelible ink, sometimes they throw buckets of ice and sometimes the water coming directly from the trunks of elephants!

It is easy to find in ” water balloon”, even a few days before the official start of the festivities, so you need to stay calm and to understand the local traditions ….

It’s virtually impossible to stay dry, only you decide to stay at home or in a hotel but why should you it? Simply You have to wear practical clothing and to arm with water pistols and good humor for participating in the biggest battle of water in the world… and the fun is guaranteed!