Celebrating Songkran in Thailand – A Big Water Fight and Buddhist Festival

Celebrating Songkran in Thailand means getting absolutely soaked. The traditional Theravāda Buddhist festival to mark Thai New Year has turned into one big water fight over the years. While you can still visit pagodas to observe rituals, you’ll still need to prepared to get drenched.

Celebrating Songkran in Thailand is fun for some, a nightmare for others. If you’re heading to Thailand, prepare to get wet! Songkran is the traditional Thai New Year water festival that is big in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and other cities and towns in Thailand where it’s being celebrated from Friday 13th through to Sunday 15th April in 2018, although some cities continue to party over a longer period.

Celebrating Songkran in Thailand – A Buddhist Festival That Is One Big Water Fight

Traditionally a Theravāda Buddhist festival, Thailand’s Songkran holiday is also observed in many other parts of Southeast Asia and the Sub-Continent, although it has different names. In Cambodia it’s called Chaul Chnam Thmey (and the first day is Maha Songkran); in Laos, it’s known as Pi Mai Lao; and in Myanmar, it’s called Thingyan.

We’ve found ourselves travelling in Thailand during Songkran a number of times over the years so we have got to experience a little of the festival in each of Bangkok, Chiang Rai, and the Mekong river, as well as Luang Prabang in Laos. Each town gave us a taste of the different traditions and rituals that take place during the three to four day period, which is stretched out to a six-day party in Chiang Mai, where we currently are.

For some, the event is just one big water fight and if you’re in Thailand you can certainly expect to get wet, no matter how hard you might try to avoid it. Locals will be holding garden hoses and bucket of waters outside their homes and businesses, poised to drench passers-by and passing cars.

If the water-bearers aren’t at street level, they’ll be found with friends jammed in the back of pick-ups or tuk tuks with huge tubs of water, cruising around town firing their sophisticated looking water pistols at unsuspecting people.

Seconds before the photo was taken above that drenched group of young Thais in Chiang Rai had just thrown a bucket of water on our taxi. But it’s not only water that’s tossed about.

Thais love to douse each other in talcum powder, which is why you’ll see white-faced locals, their skin smeared with a dough-like paste. If you see locals wandering the streets with a bottle of baby powder in their jeans pocket, stay well clear.

While wet streets won’t turn too many heads, if you’re planning on catching Bangkok’s BTS/Skytrain, don’t be surprised to find yourself standing in milky puddles by the end of the night. Leave your best shoes at the hotel and wear flip-flops or sandals.

In fact, wear the worst clothes you’re travelling with – that daggy t-shirt you wear to bed and those shorts you’re planning to discard to make room for souvenirs before you fly back home. Definitely don’t wear delicates, anything that might shrink or black – depending on the fabric, talcum powder can be tricky to get out.

In Bangkok, you are fair game anywhere and everywhere outside your hotel, although the main action has always taken place in the ‘entertainment’ area of Silom Road (preferred by Thais) and the backpacker enclave of Khao San Road (more popular with tourists).

In 2013, the government established official water-fight areas and introduced some rules, such as banning iced water and high-powered water guns. See this tongue-in-cheek take on those new regulations from the Bangkok Post on The 10 Commandments of Songkran.

Songkran is not only about water fights, although it’s no coincidence that the festival occurs during Thailand’s driest and hottest month before monsoon begins. Songkran is essentially about new life, clean breaks, fertility, and regeneration, and in rural areas festivities include rituals and rites intended to bring on rain to ensure a good rice harvest.

The idea of throwing water during Songkran is about cleansing and making a fresh start. Buddhists head to wats (temples) where they sprinkle nam ob tha (jasmine-centred water) on the hands of monks and Buddha images and participate in other merit-making rituals.

Merit-making rituals include preparing food for monks and making sand stupas which are decorated with colourful strings of flags imprinted with the animals from the Oriental zodiac and garlands of flowers. Buddhists will also clean their homes and businesses, buy new clothes, and visit their families.

To experience the more traditional Songkran activities, head to a wat during the Songkran period. In Bangkok, on the first day of Songkran there is usually a procession from Sanam Luang, opposite the Grand Palace, from where the sacred Buddha image is carried through the streets.

Major temples such as Wat Pho and Wat Arun will be bustling with Thais making merit. While you’re welcome to watch, make sure you dress modestly – the clothes you wear to the water fights will not be appreciated at the wats.

Our Tips for Celebrating Songkran in Thailand

• In 2018, Thailand’s Songkran holiday runs from the 13th to 15th April in Bangkok when it begins with a Songkran parade although in some places in Thailand it runs through to 17th April. Dates vary in different cities and provinces, so check www.tourismthailand.org for details.
• Do wear clothes that you don’t mind getting wet and wear layers so they don’t cling too much. Definitely do NOT wear bikinis, girls, and guys, it is not appropriate to go bare-chested. This is a religious festival after all.
• Leave valuables in the hotel safe and take some cash, your hotel key, passport photocopies, and camera in a sealed plastic bag. Street vendors sell handy waterproof pouches and wallets that you can wear around your neck.
• In Bangkok, take the BTS (Skytrain) or MRT (metro/underground train) as traffic is usually horrific.
• Learn how to say “Sawasdee Pee Mai!” – Happy New Year in Thai.
• If you forget to pack your water pistol, don’t worry, you’ll find plenty of vendors selling them on the streets.
• Don’t throw water on monks, the elderly, babies, or motorcyclists – for obvious reasons.
• Take bottles of water to wash the talcum powder from your eyes.

For more information, including dates, times and locations of events during Songkran, see Thai-based blogger Richard Barrow’s comprehensive site where he has plenty of detailed posts on different aspects of the festival, including maps.

Will you be celebrating songkran in Thailand this year? Where will you be going?