Songkran Water Festival - Thai New Year

Get your super soakers ready

The Thai New Year is a widely celebrated holiday throughout all of Thailand. It takes place every year from April 13-15th and it’s a BLAST. Thais and tourists alike take part in the ancient tradition by spraying each other with water to signify new beginnings and purification.

Songkran comes a Sanskrit word meaning "passing” and indicates the start of the New Year. According to PureTravel, prayers and blessings of scented water were poured over the monks during a holy cleansing process for Songkran. The locals would collect the poured water and bring it back to their loved ones and friends. They would then rub and pour the water over one another as they believed the water to be blessed.

The tradition has evolved significantly since then, replacing holy scented water with supersoakers, hoses, and buckets of water. The only ones who are safe are monks and pregnant women. So in other words, you are guaranteed to get wet.

TIPS:

• Have a waterproof pouch for your phone and put your cards and money in it as well

• You will get soaked - don’t go wearing a lot of makeup or you’ll look like Cruella Deville

• Wear clothes that can get wet, don’t just walk around in a swimsuit

• You’ll see people with white paste smeared on their faces - this is just a symbol of Songkran and they will want to smear it on your face too for the celebration

• Even people riding motorbikes and mopeds got soaked, do not drive one of these around unless you are the Rock from Fast and Furious

Above all else, have FUN! This is a time to celebrate new beginnings, cleanse yourself of the old and to get really, really wet.