{"id":2479,"date":"2012-04-12T23:34:26","date_gmt":"2012-04-13T03:34:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beginnersheart\/?p=2479"},"modified":"2012-04-12T23:34:26","modified_gmt":"2012-04-13T03:34:26","slug":"songkran-or-buddhist-new-year-in-thailand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2012\/04\/songkran-or-buddhist-new-year-in-thailand.html","title":{"rendered":"Songkran, or Buddhist New Year in Thailand ~"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Sawatdee pi Ma\u00ef!<\/em> Happy New Year! Well, almost — it’s Thursday, April 12th this year. In Thailand, this greeting is accompanied by joyful gouts of water — splashed on you, at you, over you. And while the New Year’s festival of Songkran falls in the spring (sometimes, like this year, in the same week as Passover & Easter), it’s no less a celebration of beginning.<\/p>\n

Having lived in Thailand during my adolescence, I still remember the soaking we received one Spring Break as we traveled down country from Bangkok to Phuket. The journey involved two LandRovers full of 7 kids, the cook and the housekeeper, my mother and my father’s driver. And sometimes even a birdcage full of birds to release for good luck.<\/p>\n

It also meant buckets of water each time we stopped to eat, use our makeshift facilities (a blanket held by four girls so a fifth could go to the bathroom in relative ‘privacy’), or get gas. By the time we completed our 12-hour drive, the LandRovers would be sloshing water in the floorboards, we’d be sloppy wet, as well as exhausted from laughing. And that was before the advent of super soakers!<\/p>\n

But there’s a more serious side to Songkran, as well. Like Mahayana <\/a>Buddhists, Theravadin <\/a>Buddhists (those in Thailand and most of Southeast Asia) perform the kinds of rituals of belief familiar to Christians, Hindus, Muslims and other people of faith.<\/p>\n

Household Buddha images are gently cleansed with water, usually fragranced — sometimes with jasmine. Buddha images from neighbourhood temples are paraded on beautiful flower-laden floats, ‘cleansed’ by the laughing crowds, as they throw water from the streets.Trips to temples, visits to honoured elders — all are part of the original intention of Thai New Year, as are a thorough house cleaning and New Year’s resolutions.<\/p>\n

So although it wears a different costume, it’s much like what happened at our house January 1st. And who wouldn’t like to wash away all the mistakes of the past year? \ud83d\ude42 Maybe next year I should buy that Super Soaker…<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sawatdee pi Ma\u00ef! Happy New Year! Well, almost — it’s Thursday, April 12th this year. In Thailand, this greeting is accompanied by joyful gouts of water — splashed on you, at you, over you. And while the New Year’s festival of Songkran falls in the spring (sometimes, like this year, in the same week as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":398,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,17],"tags":[11,1181,1187,1246,259],"class_list":["post-2479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-britton-gildersleeve","category-buddhism","tag-beginners-heart","tag-britton-gildersleeve","tag-buddhism","tag-buddhist-new-year","tag-songrkan"],"yoast_head":"\nSongkran, or Buddhist New Year in Thailand ~ - Beginner's Heart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sawatdee pi Ma\u00ef! Happy New Year! 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