[ENG] SONGKRAN - how Thailand celebrates their New Year! 🎉

🇵🇱 POLISH VERSION ➡ click here

The name SONGKRAN comes from the Sanskrit word (literary language of ancient and medieval India), meaning 'transmission' or 'approaching'. It’s a holiday associated with the transition, and more specifically: the passage of the Sun from the Pisces sign to the Aries sign. The sun in Asian culture has a huge, symbolic meaning.☀

VIDEO ⏬⏬⏬

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WATER 💦 is a very important element of Songkran, it has also become a huge part of the annual celebration. During its lifetime the most popular tradition is to soak everyone around you with water as a means of cleansing the body for the year to come . The streets of the cities are transformed into a field of never-ending battle for water fights. You have to watch the video above!💦

This is also an important period for families. People working in remote Thai cities are returning to family homes for this period to spend time with their loved ones. This is a period of reflections, summaries and resolutions for the next year.💗

Buddhists also visit temples, where the water is poured onto Buddha images and the hands of the Monks as a sign of respect.

Here is how the celebration schedule is presented:

1⃣April 13 - Songkran Day 💦

The day begins with prayers and processions on the main squares of the city, where the residents give alms (mainly rice and money). After collecting the alms, in order to enter the new stage of life with a blessing, the birds are released from the cages, in some places fish are released into the rivers. Images of the Buddha are sprinkled with perfumes.
This day can be associated with the Polish Śmingus Dyngus, only that in a very extreme version! Almost everyone is equipped with buckets of water, water guns, water mugs, etc. Water in the streets flows with streams. That day you will not find a dry thread on anyone... The watering ends with the sunset.

2⃣April 14 - Wan Nao (New Year's Eve) 🎉

This is the day when the Sun moves from the Pisces to the Aries sign. Wan Nao has a very symbolic dimension, that day the Buddhists go to the temples to build a Chedi from the sand (a sand castle built in the style of a Buddhist temple).

3⃣April 15 - New Year💫

The Thai New Year is the last day of Songkran celebrations in many parts of the country. Sacrifices are made on this day in temples to celebrate the New Year, and many other events take place.

Would you like to participate in such a festival?

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