Thai Water Festival is a traditional festival that celebrates the Thai New Year, which is April 13-15. The real name of the festival is “Songkran.”
The Thunderbird Thai Smile Club organized the water festival at the Fish on Friday, leaving students from different
Tris fighting it out with water. Participants needed only a matter of a few seconds to be drenched from head to toe. Two pools were set up and multiple water guns of different magnitudes were available for the battle.
In the past, younger people in family will pour water to older people’s hand, e.g. parents, grandparents, etc., then they will give a good wish back to them. It shows Thai respectful culture and how they treat their family members, since Thai family is a big family, included dad, mum, and grand parents, in contrast to western culture, which is a small family.
Because April is summer time and the weather is very hot in Thailand, younger generation is also splash water during the Songkran day to celebrate the new year festival and also relief heat in the summer. They enjoy the water festival during April, 13th-15th. Government will allow to close some major roads to splash water during this period.
In northern part, especially Chiang Mai, they celebrate Songkran from 12th-16th, which is longer than Bangkok’s celebration. In Eastern part, for instant Pattaya, their celebration starts 16th to 19th April, which is later than any place in Thailand. We call this special event “Wan Lai.”