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Thai New Year |
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Songkran—Thai New Year starts from April 13th every year and lasts for 3 days. Songkran festival on April 13th is the “Maha Songkran Day” or the day to mark the end of the old year. April 14 is “Wan Nao”, which is the day after, and April 15 is “Wan Thaloeng Sok”, on which the New Year begins. On Thai New Year Day, people travel long distances to meet their family members and relatives. Thus, the city of Bangkok becomes a deserted island as people visit their native places. It is a day for meeting each other, to create unity among people, and to enjoy the entertaining events.
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Songkran is also known as the “Water Festival”, as people believe that water will wash away evil and ominous aspects of nature and also remove bad luck. The word Songkran—a Thai word means ‘move’ or ‘change place’, as it the day when the sun changes its position in the zodiac.
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| The Songkran or Thai New Year tradition involves pouring of scented water on to the hands of parents, grandparents and to present them with gifts including making merits to dedicate the result to their ancestors. The elderly people in return wish their children good luck and prosperity In many cities, such as Chiang Mai, the Buddha statues from all of the ‘wats’ in the city are paraded through the streets so that people can wash them as they pass by. Peoplecarry handfuls of sand to the temple in order to recompense the dirt that they carry away on their feet during the rest of the year. |
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The sand is then piled into large, tiered piles and decorated with colorful flags. Later in the day, people also do community services.
Dgreetings.com offers you an insight into the Thai New Year Celebrations. |
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