The Songkran Festival is coming. The Thai New Year’s celebration, which falls during the hottest period of the year, allows revelers to cool off by throwing water on each other.
Today, Coconuts Bangkok takes you back 70 years to Chiang Mai, where you can observe how the celebration was practiced before high-pressured water guns, water-loaded trucks and baby powder entered the Songkran mix.
Songkran was the beginning of the year in Thailand from 1888 to 1940. Since then, the first of January has been assigned the title of “New Year’s Day.”
The celebration covers three important days: the thirteenth is called Maha Songkran, the day that marks the end of the old year; the fourteenth, Wan Nao, is believed to be a sacred day when Buddhists go to temples and build sand chedis; and the fifteenth or Wan Thaloeng Sok signifies the beginning of the new year.
