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FRIDAY, APRIL 11, 2014
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HAVE A SOAKING, SAFE SONGKRAN! Photo: Kazuhiro Nakamura Anthika Muangrod reporter4@classactmedia.co.th
T
he annual Thai New Year Songkran Festival begins on Sunday (April 13) and runs for three days. While it is known for its joyful mass water fights in the streets, there is much more to it than that. On the down side, drunkenness
combined with very large numbers of people travelling by road also makes this a dangerous time. Once again this year, the province and the police have declared Seven Days of Danger, beginning today (April 11), in an effort to reduce road deaths and injuries. For more details see page 2. Not everyone is out there slinging buckets of water around or blasting
others with super-soakers. For many Thais this ancient festival is a time to remind themselves of Thailand’s traditions and the culture passed from generation to generation. Songkran is a time for paying respect to the people one looks up to, especially parents and the elderly, and to ask for their blessings. Many also do a big “spring cleaning” of their house, then go to visit relatives.
For many Thais, Songkran Day begins with making merit at the wat, paying respects to the monks, cleaning Buddha statues, washing the hands of the elderly, bringing sand to a temple as a symbolic way of helping to build the wat, and releasing birds and fish, all action that bring merit And then, of course, it begins to get riotous.
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