~ Thai Songkran ~ สวัสดีปีใหม่ ~

From India to Thailand.. a virtual travel to the Land of the Smiles, since in Thailand they celebrate Thai New Year today, also called Songkran!

Below our beautiful Thai girls saying Happy New Year to you!! The traditional greeting is "สวัสดีปีใหม่" (sa-wat-dee pee mai), basically "Happy New Year".

Don't the girls look beautiful in their traditional Thai outfit? Jasmine in red, Juliet in green.


Songkran Festival is the traditional Thai New Year celebrated on April 13th. Families and friends gather to celebrate by visiting temples, sprinkling water on Buddha images in reverence, and sprinkling water on each other's hands as an act of wishing good luck.



In recent years, the tradition of sprinkling water has been interpreted by youngsters as a great excuse for a water fight, and it is not uncommon to have buckets and containers of water thrown at you by teams of merry makers in the backs of trucks as you make your way down the street - particularly in major tourist areas like Bangkok and Pattaya.

Children of all ages, and sometimes even adults delight in equipping themselves with water guns and spraying anyone who comes in their path - no one is exempt! Remember this date when you are in Patong and leave your cameras and anything likely to suffer water damage behind in your hotel room, because you will get wet. That happens to us when we went to Thailand for our first look-see trip and we arrived in Pattaya on Songkran. Wow! What an introduction was that to the Land of the Smiles!!



Songkran has traditionally been celebrated as the New Year for many centuries, and is believed to have been adapted from the Indian Holi festival. It is now observed nationwide, even in the far south. However, the most famous Songkran celebrations are still in the northern city of Chiang Mai, where it continues for six days and even longer. It has also become a party for foreigners and an additional reason for many to visit Thailand for immersion in another culture.

Such a fun festival, I wish I could go to Thailand now... We have a Thai temple here close by and we went on Sunday to celebrate, but the only thing we came across where very drunk Caucasians and their Thai wives spraying everybody wet, even when you had a camera around your neck... so after checking the whole festival out we left after 10 minutes. Even the food was not that great.... too bad! Now we have to wait for the big Thai festival that is held in August every year here in SA.

Have a great day! Tell me what are you doing today, celebrating Songkran??
Mireille