If you are planning to travel to Thailand in April, you have to attend to this festival that will give you an experience that you will never forget.
In April, Thailand hosts a holiday that is beloved by many. If you are not a fan of the summer heat of April, this festival is for you. Today, together with Illume-eMag, let’s find the origin and what makes this festival attracts many tourists every year.
Thailand is a Buddhist country, so Thai people celebrate the traditional New Year according to the Buddhist calendar. Accordingly, April 15 is Buddha’s birthday, so people choose this day as the New Year’s Day of the whole country, taking place in 3 days, from April 13 to April 15 every year. In the first two days, on the 13th, people will clean their houses, and on the 14th, they will prepare dishes for the main New Year. On the 15th, all temples in Thailand will hold a Buddha bathing festival with the participation of a large number of Thai people. After that, everyone will hold a water festival, whoever can splash more water on this day will be lucky.
Songkran Water Festival is one of the main rituals taking place on the traditional New Year of the Thai people, showing a high sense of community when people flock to the street to participate in the festival. Water festival is a common custom of the whole country, but each region has slightly different rituals. The water festival in Thailand is held the largest in Bangkok, but to see the most traditional festival, visitors should go to Chiang Mai. Water Festival in Chiang Mai is considered the most attractive because here people still retain many ancient cultural features. The Chiang Mai people prepare for the Songkrai New Year 1 month before, they decorate their houses, repair the temples beautifully, and prepare the tools to splash water. After the festival, people start to eat Tet, first making a tray of rice to worship their ancestors and then having fun and eating to their heart’s content.
Water festival in some major cities of Thailand:
BANGKOK
This is the largest city in Thailand. On this holiday, people flock to the streets to participate in the festival. The big and small roads in Bangkok are crowded with people, and tourists happily participate in creating an extremely vibrant and interesting scene.
CHIANGMAI
Here is considered the capital of Songkran holiday. The SongKran people hold a grand opening ceremony, along with the exciting water festival are traditional performances, You can enjoy traditional dishes along both sides of the road, participate in the Buddha bathing ceremony at the temple. Phra Buddha Sihing famous temple.
Pataya
Pataya is also known as the land of rice, Songkran is also an occasion for people to hold a festival to pray for rain for the crop. Songkran festival in Pataya also takes place vibrantly on the streets, besides there are parades on the beach, the Miss Songkran contest.
Phuket
Songkran Festival in Phuket is an important occasion for relatives to visit each other. Before Tet, people often clean houses, Buddha statues, altars with perfume to pray for good luck. You can participate in many activities such as charity donation, flake perfume on the elderly, events taking place at Loma park, harbor, Jungceylon event center…