Songkran - Thai New Year

For the last three days we have gotten to experience a Thai holiday called Songkran, which is the Thai new year. Songkran begun on April 13th in Chachoensgao, and will end tomorrow, but will move on to the next city and end up completely finishing in Bangkok. Traditionally, Songkran begun with people sprinkling water or putting powder on the faces of the elders as a blessing. Now it has turned into something much bigger and more exciting: a giant water fight. Everyone in the city prepares to get drenched during the Thai new year, as people will try to soak you at any opportunity they can get. Many people, including us, will pile into the back of a pickup truck with buckets of water and water guns, and spray people on the streets or in other passing cars. We filled a garbage can with water and had many water guns and containers to throw water at people with. It was one of my highlights of this entire trip so far; everyone had a blast when we would see another truck full of people pull up and have a huge water fight. There were also many laughs at the looks we would get from some people since we are basically the only Caucasian people in Chachoensgao!

 

Some people even put ice in their buckets to make their water freezing!



By the time we were done, everyone was soaked but had a huge smile on our faces. I wish we could have our own Songkran in Winnipeg!

-Camille