Songkran is a time for family
reunions, visits to temples and spring housecleaning. – Songkran is the
celebration of the traditional Thai New Year and lasts several days.
During the festival, revellers participate
in traditional water pouring, which varies for a gentle pour onto the head or
shoulders, to a full body splash! The symbolism of the water is important
because it represents the cleansing of all the misfortunes in the previous year
and a new beginning for the New Year.
Many temples (Wats) will be
full of people waiting to give alms to monks, either waiting to receive their
blessing inside the Wat, or waiting outside to give offerings to congregations
of monks.
Many Wats will feature pagodas made
of sand, build outside the temple walls. This sand represents all the soil that
has left the temples on the shoes of all of its visitors. They will be
decorated with flags, candles and other gifts placed by visitors to the Wat.
A special feature of Songkran
celebrations is the Rod Nam Dum Hua ceremony, which is celebrated throughout
the day. On this day younger people will pour fragrant water on the hands of
the elder’s as a gesture of humility and as a request for their blessings.
People will also pour fragrant
water over Buddhist statues in the temples to clean them – others make merit by
doing this in nine different Buddhist temples on this particular day.
Traditionally this water would be then taken to wash the hands of the elders of
your community.
Ram Nam Dum Hua is also an occasion
where if a family cannot visit the temple, they will wake up early to give alms
to the monks that pass by their homes. Many households do this every week but
at this time it is the whole family who waits to give alms to the monks.
Traditionally the water used during
the Ram Nam Dum Hua ceremony is fragrant. Even today, fragrant water can be
found in found in people’s homes and Wats during this time – even the fountain
at Cape Panwa Hotel will contain fragrant water during the Ram Nam Dum Hua
festivities.
It is most certain that the water
that you will encounter during the Songkran Festival will come from a wide
variety of sources, such as water guns, ice cube trucks, buckets, hoses and
even fire trucks.
At Cape Panwa Hotel we celebrate
Songkran by visiting a Buddhist temple in the morning, having an enormous water
fight on the beach, blessing people who selflessly take care of others and have
a Thai buffet on the beach at Panwa House.
Don’t forget that if you are
splashed, the response you should give is ‘Sawasdee Pi Mai’ (Happy New
Year), and then splash them back!
