Songkran is the Thai New Year’s Festival that begins every April 13. Songkran comes from the Sanskrit word meaning astrological passage. To you and us, it means change or transformation. While the holiday occurs close to the beginning of Spring, the New Year begins with the ascension of Aries on the astrological chart. For simplicity purposes, the Thais celebrate it every April 13 for tradition’s sake even if the celestially important date is different.
One of the Songkran traditions is for individuals and monks to pour water over Buddha statues as a sign of reverence. The symbolism is meant to indicate the cleansing of one’s soul and washing away sins at the start of the New Year. But Thais and tourists have taken this to a whole new level. Thus, enter the Water Festival.
In Chiang Mai, Songkran also means that the whole city shuts down for an enormous water fight. Everyone (all ages from toddlers to the most senior) participates and everyone is vulnerable to getting hosed (literally). People buy super soaker style water guns (see our photo above) and buckets. Restaurants and street vendors put out big oil drums and continuously fill them with water to ‘arm’ the celebrants. From about 9am to 7pm (when the oil drums are wheeled away), the city is one giant (and we mean giant) water fight. The only safe space is in a restaurant or bar. Sit outside at a restaurant and you will be destroyed with water.
All strategies are fair game apparently. From singling out an individual for a group attack to a full on cross-street battle with passersby…and everything in between. The big winner are the people flinging ice chilled water. Get hit by a bucket of ice cold water or even a stream from a gun and it freezes you for a moment (pun intended). For example, see the videos below to get a small taste of the Water Festival. The first video is from a scene we witnessed after we crossed the street to avoid the buckets of water being hurled on the 12th. The second, from the 13th gives a fuller picture of the chaos and fun. The second video was shot from inside an open air restaurant of the street scene outside the restaurant.
Our favorite strategy is using the slowdown in traffic to drench people in songthaews, bikes, motorbikes, mopeds and cars. A songthaew is a cheap and popular form of transport in Chiang Mai. It’s a minibus that holds up to 10 passengers, but its really a pickup truck with two benches running along the bed of the truck and a shell covering the passengers. There are windows that run the broad side of the shell promoting air flow and an open doorway in the back though which passengers enter and exit the vehicle.
When a songthaew stops or slows down, one can walk up to the window and slide it open exposing the unsuspecting passengers to a good rinsing. Or one can walk up to the back door and unload your water inventory onto the passengers. Buckets are an especially good choice for songthaews and its passengers.
The one part of the game we haven’t figured out yet is how to deal with pickup trucks. There are generally 4-6 passengers riding in the back of the truck with a huge drum of ice cold water. We have super soakers full of ambient temperature water and they have buckets full of ice cold water. It’s a no contest. We lose, they win.
All in all, it was a great way to celebrate the Thai New Year and an auspicious way to start our global adventure.
So a couple of tips if one plans on attending Songkran –
One, everything one carries has to be in a waterproof holder or leave it at the hotel. Every inch of you will be drenched by the end of the day and it will be a continuous cycle of wet then dry then wet then dry. Hotels and travel agents hand out special, waterproof holders for phones and money. They only cost about 10-20 Thai Baht on the street (33-67 cents USD) and they are a lifesaver.
Two, embrace it. You’re going to get soaked so just have fun with it. The only bummer is people use river (very dirty and smelly) water and some people insist on shooting you in the face. The latter is a no-no because the water can be unsafe in Thailand. That means wearing sunglasses and keeping your mouth closed during skirmishes. But again, one must grin and bear it.
Three, technically the Water Festival and the water fights begin on April 13. We took a songthaew from the train station to our hotel and we quickly learned that the fights start on the 12th. We met a friend in Chiang Mai and he noted that water guns were being sold at least a week before the water festival officially began, so people were prepared early. Traditionally, the Water Festival runs 3 days through the 15th. As we post this on the 16th, we are drying clothes that got drenched from the constant barrage during our 2-hour ride back from an elephant park because participants seemingly needed just one more day of fun. As for tomorrow, stay tuned.
Four, we enjoyed both the water fights but also visiting the temples and seeing the more formal ceremonies marking the beginning of the Thai New Year. We started the 13th early with the official kick off ceremony to festivities and the small parade that featured prominently in the ceremony. The Mayor of Chiang Mai and the regional Governor were in attendance. Notably, Miss Universe Thailand (she finished in the Top 5) was in attendance as well. See the following two photos from the kick off ceremony. Note that the ceremony is ostensibly Buddhist but has strong Hindu influence.
Five, while the Water Festival officially runs for 3 days, we assure you that one day of participation is sufficient. Especially when we started fighting at about 9:30am (we were the victims of a random attack while eating breakfast) and went until about 7pm. It was an exhilarating and epic day filled with laughs and good times. It didn’t matter if you were fighting Thais, Chinese, Europeans or fellow Americans, a good time was paramount. That said, one day of being soaked through and through was enough.
Six, we picked a hotel in the center of the action near the East Gate (Tha Phae) of old Chiang Mai. That’s the good news and the bad news. There was no escaping the water fights or the mass chaos. We would very likely choose the same hotel again but this time with open eyes.
Final Thought: This kind of festival works beautifully in Thailand because the locals are kind-hearted and happy people. There is nothing malicious in their Water Festival. It’s pure expressions of joy in celebrating the New Year. Any thoughts as to how this might work in your local community? Let us know what you think in the comment section below.
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