Songkran Festival

Does anyone have details on how this festival affects travel in thailand? I am planning to travel from the 7th to the 17th, and I understand they will be throwing water on us from the 13th to the 17th?

I guess I just wonder if there is more to Songkran Festival then being soaked every day?

Songkran Festival

I presume you are talking about travelling 7th to 17th April 2008?

It depends where you are travelling. Songkran tends to be more ';energetically'; celebrated in and around Bangkok. Road fatalities are very high at this time because of the extreme lengths some of the celebrations take. In other places it%26#39;s a great, fun celebration with much more than throwing water and celebrated in different ways in different parts of Thailand. Street parades, costume competitions, beauty pageants are some of what I have observed.

When we were in Chiang Rai (further North from Chiang Mai) we travelled upriver on a longtail boat and were happy to be sprayed and spray back the children playing happily in the shallow waters.

You get as you want to.

Songkran Festival

Sorry,

You get as WET as you want to.

Yes, I did mean April 7th to the 17th. I heard a mention of the higher amount of drunken driving and such.

I dont mind being sprayed w/water... seems kind of fun.

I just wondered if it would be a huge inconvenience to visit places and eat because restaurants close, hotels are highly booked etc.

In north Thailand Songkran is much more than just throwing water where the festival or Thai new year originated. if you are going to be in Bangkok and south not much to it except the water throwing and mostly in tourist areas.

The origins of the Songkran festival are ancient and have been widely studied. Scholars are relatively certain that the Songkran festival began with the animist Dtai people, some of whom still live in northern region of Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Yunnan China. Songkran was probably a kind of fertility ceremony to celebrate the new year. The modern celebration and its origin myth were probably introduced by Brahmin priests.

The word Songkran derives from the Pali language of the Buddhist scriptures. In Pali the word Sankhara, or Sankranti in Sanskrit, refers to the movement of the sun from one sign of the Zodiac to another, here from Aries to Taurus. The word changed to Sangkan in Thai, and later to Songgran (Thai pronunciation) or Songkran (writing habit).

The Northern Thai people have their own folkloric explanation for the origins of the word. Songkran day itself is called Wan Sangkhan Lohng, and the day of the new year is called Pavenee Pee Mai. Wan Sangkhan Lohng is, according to local legend, the day that Lady Sangkhan passes by, as the word lohng means to 鈥榞o away%26#39; or 鈥榩ass by%26#39;. Technically it is the last day of the Lanna Lunar calendar, and the start of Pavenee Pee Mai.

Songkran, or the Thai New Year, is still the most important of all the Thai festivals and holidays. My Thai wife and I usually have loads of friends from other countries to our home and we love to have them participate in all the traditional activities with us. Although we are not Buddhists we love to go to the temples to watch the activities, eat, drink, throw water and just have fun. Each year, the four-day celebration of Songkran consists of many activities, and these are briefly explained below.

April 12 is Wan Sungkharn Lohng. This is a day for house cleaning and general preparation for the New Year. In the evening it is traditional for Thais to dress up as a signal of the coming new year.

In Chiang Mai, the Songkran procession is held on this day. This is a parade through Chiang Mai comprised of Buddha images and attendants on floats, which are accompanied by minstrels and the town%26#39;s people. Today we load up the pickup truck with 50-gallon drums filled with water. After the parade we go to the ice house for a large block of ice to put in the water barrel. We then travel around the city joining others in the largest water fight on the planet.

April 13 is Wan Nao. On this day people prepare cooked meals and preserved food for the Buddhist merit-making that takes place on the following day. Activities at Wat Prasingh templecontinue on this day and in the evening local residents go to the banks of the Mae Ping River and gather sand to be deposited in piles topped by flowers in the temples. This practice is the ancient ';raising the temple grounds'; ritual, which was necessary in the old days because then Thai New Year was held at the end of the rainy season in the first month of the old Thai Lunar Calendar.

April 14 is Wan Payawan. On this day a grand new year begins with early morning merit-making at the temples. Preserved and cooked foods, fresh fruit, monks%26#39; robes and other offerings are made at the temples. In the home, people do the final cleaning of Buddha images using scented water. Traditionally this is the day that the pouring of water begins. It was once the practice to pour gently, but the fun-loving Thais have transposed this into a relative water free-for-all.

April 15 is Wan Parg-bpee. On this day homage is paid to ancestors, elders and other persons deserving respect because of age of position. This is called %26#39;Rohd Nam Songkran%26#39;, meaning %26#39;The Pouring of Songkran Water%26#39;, and the water is sprinkled on the elder persons while uttering wishes of good luck and a happy future.

In Chiang Mai, this is the final day of the celebration and the day on which people have built up to a crescendo of water throwing. It is the day when all family and religious obligations have been completed and the people are totally dedicated to having fun.

Hotels and all modes of transportation to and from North and Northeast Thailand will be fully booked well in advance of Songkran. All business will be open.

Enjoy,

Randy and Ning

We were in Chiang Mai on 11 April this Songkran and got absolutely drenched. It was good fun for a few hours but the tourists/travellers in my opinion took the fun too far. They carried on chucking water well in to the night. We went back to our hotel to change and dry off and headed out for dinner and got wet again. I did get quite angry with some tourists who were drunk and just treating this festival as an excuse to do so. Advised one group to give it a rest and swore fish wife style at another after being soaked AGAIN.

Saying that, Chiang Mai is apparently one of the nicer places to celebrate and it was a good experience. Just take it easy, don%26#39;t use water bombs - this really annoys the locals as they can hurt and don%26#39;t purposefully blast someone in the face - again, it%26#39;s not pleasant.

The Thais stop throwing water around 6 PM. Many tourists in the Loy Kroh road and moat area get very drunk and don%26#39;t know when to quit. I have talked with bar and pub owners in the past about the rowdy patrons but as long as they keep buying drinks and spending money they can throw water all night as far as they are concerned.

My advise is to stay way from these areas during Songkran, we do.

Randy and Ning

We were in Pattaya last year during Songkran. We got drenched daily, and it didn%26#39;t stop at 6:00 by anyone! I think the tourists fueled the locals and vise versa!

Just be prepared to get wet. Tourists are great targets! I was mostly worried about my camera, but consider what you%26#39;re wearing too. One young lady walking in the same area as we were was wearing a thin white tank top and white thin cotton pants. She was very wet and might as well have been wearing nothing!

By the way allthai, I enjoyed your condensed summary of songkran. If I were to be in Thailand again during songkran, I would certainly plan my itinerary to be in a location that celebrated songkran as opposed to the plain old water fight we experienced.

You won%26#39;t be safe from a soaking during the day , it can be a bit annoying if you%26#39;ve never visited before and want to visit the sites , not beacuse they are closed , they aren%26#39;t , you%26#39;ll just be wet all day and your personal belongings need to be well waterproofed. Travel light and try and visit places out of town , this will help a bit . but you%26#39;ll still get a soaking out in the sticks.

if you want to see a taste of Songkran download this - sevensuns.net/images/seven-suns-songkran.wmv

Sorry , it%26#39;s a bit of a slow download , but worth it.