The dual face of Songkran
Two different Songkran festivals are celebrated in Thailand. One is celebrated by a selfish minority who abuse Songkran's spirit.
Bangkok Post, NRC of Thailand, lashes out at these hooligans who view the party as a license to get drunk, race recklessly on motorcycles, use drugs, gamble and spray them with supersoakers or water hoses at unsuspecting passing motorcyclists.
The newspaper continues: There are just too many idiots on the road who see nothing wrong in driving while drunk, cramming 20 or more friends or relatives in the back of a pickup truck, overtaking on bends, running red lights, cutting aggressively in front of other vehicles and, in every instance, choosing speed over safety.
It is therefore not surprising that in the so-called seven dangerous days, as the Sonkran holiday is called, in 2011 traffic killed 271 and injured 3.476.
There is also another Songkran
But there is also another Songkran. In the hamlet of Somboon Samakkhi, for example, about 120 kilometers northeast of Bangkok in the province of Nakhon Nayok. Somboon Samakkhi is no more than a collection of scattered houses between rice fields and bushes. If you can speak of a center at all, it is Wat Somboon Samakkhi. You can tell from temples how prosperous the surrounding area is or how generous the residents are. In terms of size and design, Wat Somboon Samakkhi gives the impression that a lot of money is being made in the area, but this is not apparent from the surrounding buildings.
On the first day of Songkran (April 13), the residents gather in the village hall, a half-open building extended for the occasion with two large party tents. There are about two hundred villagers, mostly old people, women and small children; teenagers and young adults are largely missing. Many are dressed for the occasion in a baggy, brightly colored floral shirt.
You can hardly speak of a devotional atmosphere
When my girlfriend and I arrive, a worship service begins after a few minutes. Two monks and a novice are reciting texts that I have heard countless times but have no idea what they mean. Sometimes this happens in turn with the believers holding their hands in the wai position. In the temple they would squat on the floor, here they sit on chairs.
You can hardly speak of a devotional atmosphere. Meanwhile, the kitchen staff, who had been cooking all day the day before, and the people who are a bit further away under the party tents, are talking. The children run around and carefully start shooting water pistols.
After about ten minutes – that's not too bad, because sometimes those services last a long time and they remind me of the sleep-inducing sermons of strictly religious ministers in the Netherlands – the chairs are placed in a large circle and about thirty elderly people take them. place. They get a package of clothes, something I've never seen before at this ceremony. The residents have now filled jugs with water from a large barrel of water on which flower petals float.
And then begins what Songkran is all about: paying homage to the elders and their luck and happiness wishes. With a monk in the lead, those present walk past the elderly, who keep their hands folded open on their knees. Everyone pours a little water over their hands and sometimes also over their shoulders. The last woman gets the most water, because no water should be wasted.
A water ballet erupts; no water war
It's time for that afterwards sanuk, a concept that is typically referred to as Thai in travel guides. The word means something like pleasant, pleasant and that would apply to all aspects of Thai life.
Chairs and tables are grouped into seats, dinner is served and the sound man puts on a CD with Thai music, with the volume knob turned all the way to the right, as is usually the case in Thailand. A real water ballet erupts, although much less aggressive than the water wars where Bangkok Post refers to. The Thai New Year has begun.
Somboon Samakkhi, April 15, 2012.