Songkran for the lovers and the haters – with poll
Thailand doesn’t celebrate New Year’s Eve with fireworks or champagne, but with buckets of water, talcum powder and complete traffic jams full of partygoers. Songkran, the traditional Thai New Year’s celebration, is no longer a modest ritual. It is a collective water war that no one can escape, whether you are a tourist or just happened to be out for a sandwich.
Opinions on this festival vary widely: some call it the best spectacle on earth, others avoid it like rain in the rainy season. In this article, you can read two sides of the same downpour: for the Songkran enthusiast and the Songkran hater. Which side do you choose?
For those who like: Songkran – the wettest, craziest, most delicious party in the world!
There are festivals. There are water fights. And then there’s Songkran – a national flood disguised as a party. Once a year, Thailand transforms into a giant water park with no rules, no limits, no mercy. Forget subtlety. Forget drought. During Songkran, everything gets soaked – even your soul.
You don't have to choose whether to participate. You are a participant as soon as you take one step outside. Child, grandpa, tourist or monk, no one escapes. A child with a super soaker and a grin from ear to ear can easily be taken down. And admit it: that's exactly the charm.
The atmosphere? Hysterical. The music? Too loud. The clothes? So colorful that your eyes water (or is that water again?). Everyone is happy, wild and free. You don't know anyone, but you clap hands with everyone as if they were your best friend. Your phone has died, your clothes are stuck to your body, your hair is covered in talcum powder - and yet you are having the time of your life.
Songkran isn’t a party. It’s a surrender. To chaos. To connection. To pure, uninhibited fun. It’s sticky, chaotic, and totally impractical – but boy, do you miss it once it’s over.
For the haters: Songkran – three days of open water violence in flip-flops!
Imagine this: You’re walking slowly to the 7-Eleven for a bottle of water. You’re wearing dry clothes. You’ve just done your hair. You’re feeling good. And then… BAM! A bucket of ice-cold river water on the back of your neck from a stranger with a smile like he just won the lottery. Welcome to Songkran.
Think you can escape? Forget it. No escape route. No dry spot. No mercy. You’re a walking target in a national water sports drama. For three days. Or four. Or seven – depending on how sadistic the locals are.
Oh, and don’t forget your electronics. Phone? Broken. Wallet? Soaked. Nerves? Overcooked. As you wring out your underwear for the fourth time in ten minutes, someone cheerfully suggests that you “join in the fun.”
Enjoying it too? A street tsunami with accompanying hypothermia? Roaring pick-ups full of noisy teenagers with water cannons the size of fighter jets? The fact that you can't be dry or serious anywhere for three days?
If you like inconvenience, chaos, colds, and sticky clothes, Songkran is your party. If not? Lock up your house, order a week’s worth of provisions, and pray that April 16th comes soon. Songkran: the only time of year you’ll regret ever going outside.
Poll: Songkran: Fun or Terrible? What do you think?
Give your opinion:
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I wish everyone their own pleasure. But I haven't participated in the puberty stuff for 30 years. Every year they ask me to go play with them, as always I say no thanks. I don't like it.
Huge waste of water and that in a country where there is drought, ridiculous.
Songkran is something for and of the Thai. For me personally, I find it a horrific period. The first time I experienced it, I thought: "Oh, it won't be that bad." And I went on my way to do some shopping in high spirits. Well, I literally got a rude awakening. I unexpectedly got a full bucket of ice-cold water dumped on me. Shivers ran down my body. After this experience, I stocked up on enough provisions for the next few years and just stayed home. Great solution.
Every year I see that not only children participate, but also many adults live it up in this spectacle. And then I ask myself: "What is the fun in this?" For children I can imagine something, but adults? Seems like food for psychologists to me.
I grant everyone their pleasures, so no problem. But these kinds of festivities are not for me and I do think I have the right to protect myself from this and to isolate myself.
Don't make it so difficult. What do you mean, horrible? A bucket of ice-cold water being dumped over you? There are worse things going on in the world. There are people who get ballistic missiles thrown at them. If it's not for you because of old age or illness, stay away from it. I regularly spend a long weekend at home with my wife, without setting a single step outside my 'estate'. Nothing wrong with that. This weekend is just one of them. Enough delicious provisions in the house, a good drink, I have my music and books, eat and drink to my heart's content, my wife spoils me, and the day after tomorrow it's just Wednesday again. That others are going wild like adolescents, children, infantiles or otherwise: so what? I've had my wild years too, and everything comes to an end. Do you know what else is food for psychologists? Being against a festivity like this. Must be a Dutch thing. Always against it. Just imagine the discussion in the Netherlands where people swear: some people are against the abolition of a tradition, others against those who are against it.
Unless you become as little children, you will not enter the Thai Kingdom of Heaven… Songkran has become an extravaganza of middle-aged foreign gentlemen in search of eternal youth.
My wife and I drove to her family near Prasat for the first time in twelve years, about 600 kilometers from Pranburi.
We drove there on Friday and encountered three traffic jams along the way, all caused by cars that had stopped.
It was busy around Bangkok, but not busier than usual.
Today (Monday) we drove back, and the road was now completely quiet – no traffic jams at all.
Songkran was celebrated with her family and everyone was wet… but my wife made sure I didn't get sprayed (I had spare clothes in the car just in case).
She said that the farang didn't like his balls wet, and that was met with hilarious laughter.
Her parents were soaking wet - almost everyone, actually. Only her brother, the monk, and I were allowed to stay dry...
There are 2 types of Songkram.
1. The water festival as we know it from TV, the big tourist centres and Bangkok.
2. The annual ceremony where people wish each other the best for the new year and where elders let a few drops of water land on your head.
In our village in the North we only know the second kind and I have never been completely soaked, let alone had someone throw a bucket of ice cubes in my face.
I hate the 1st version and avoid it. I like the 2nd one just fine.
Today is the last day I have to drive around.
My son borrowed a water tank from the neighbor, 1000 liters.
Water trough and children in the pickup, then drive a few laps in the center.
The children love it, I don't need it but for them it is an event.
Then we look for a parking space in the center, where we stay for a while.
I stay in the car and look at my phone, that loud boom boom music is terrible.
Luckily it will be over tomorrow.
How sour some people can be, about something like Songkran. And why, because you get splashed? Apart from the well-known excesses, many Thais see it as a cheerful escape from the often harsh reality. Everyone lets off steam, often young people, sometimes together with the elderly, and enjoys the cool water in an often scorching hot month.
This year we went to the waterfalls in Nakhon Nayok via Lopburi and Saraburi. And everywhere on the roads and in the villages it was one big and cheerful water festival with lots of music and especially many cheerful people. Yes, this regularly caused traffic jams, the music was often too loud and we were sprayed with water a few times without asking. But everyone laughs and is cheerful and friendly. Nice, right?
And just think that after Songkran the children will have to listen meekly to the strict teacher again, the employee will have to work for a meager wage again and the farmer will have to look forward to a meager harvest for the umpteenth time. Let them enjoy themselves for a few days a year.
Well said, Jahris. IN NL/BE we have an Ash Wednesday after Carnival to be able to face normal life serenely and bravely. Maybe we can declare the Wednesday after Songkran as Sourpuss Day for the Farang. That day they can be happy that life is 'normal' again.