Songkran

On Saturday the 14th, my roommates, myself and a friend ventured out to the "old city" to take part in the Thai New Year celebration, Songkran. You can see my posts; Prayer Walk, The last day of School before April Break, and learn some more history about the moat and Songkran...someday I WILL learn how to tag my posts! 

Songkran started mainly as a way to bless your family, etc. You would pour water on their hands or back and bless them. People still go back to their homes to spend time with their families and bless them, but it also has turned into a countrywide water fight from April 13th-15th every year. Chiang Mai is known to be the best place to celebrate Songkran.

We decided to be smart and NOT bring our cameras (wish I had a water proof one) so we don't have any of our own pictures. I went on the internet and found some good pictures that show what it is like around the moat for 3+ days.

Water guns and buckets...and wet streets!

Bumper-to-bumper traffic.....and crowded sidewalks....

One of the many reasons we pray a lot for this festival...
buckets of water thrown at motorbikes driving down the road can very easily equal accidents....

buckets of water...

The back of pick-up trucks are full of people and garbage cans of COLD water

We were completely wet within minutes of getting to the moat.....

Big blocks of ice are sold on the side of the road to be put into the garbage cans...
Can you say "ICE COLD WATER"

This is how we and most other people got water....bring a bucket with a string on it...
throw it into the moat....pull up your full bucket of dirty moat water....
Since traffic is pretty much stopped...people in the trucks will get out and fill their garbage cans with moat water as well...
then they just add ICE!

It is the hottest time of year here in the 90s/100s all day long and well into the evenings, so the water actually feels quite nice! We spent about 2-3 hours walking around the moat during the hottest part of the day and actually got a little cold at times:) Most of the people are nice as they dump water on you and wish you a Happy New Year and you just smile, say thank you, and wish them a Happy New Year as well!

Prayer Walk...

We did a prayer walk on Good Friday morning for the city of Chiang Mai before their Thai New Year celebration; Songkran. The downtown is surrounded by a moat. We were praying for protection for the city during the big water fight (Songkran pictures coming soon....).

People swim in the moat during the festival...this sign was put up to warn them of deep water...

Walking and praying for the city of Chiang Mai

Around the wall...

by the old gates and corners there are still parts of the wall that surrounded the city

my prayer walking friends...

The moat..

flowers and the moat....

I love the pictures of the wall and moat...my roommate Tami took most of those  pictures !

They were trying to have a "no alcohol" Songkran...unfortunately there was still a lot of alcohol...

Our prayer walking group...

Here is link that has some interesting information about the  "Old City" of Chiang Mai...if you are interested...

http://www.embracechiangmai.com/index.php?page=oldcity

Last day of School before April Break

Thai schools are on their "summer break." Their school year is completed in March and starts up again in May (I believe). We, as an international school, are on the US school schedule of having June/July and part of August off, but we do get a nice 2 week "April Break" during the Thai New Year. 

The last day of school before the break the students took the time to thank and show their respect to their teachers the "Thailand way." All the elementary students have Thai twice a week where they learn the language and many cultural traditions, etc. One of these traditions is to show respect and thank their teachers, parents, etc around the Thai New Year. They do this by pouring water over their hands and saying thank you and in our Christian international school saying "God bless you."

 During the New Year most Thais go back to their families and will take the time to bless their parents/grandparents and thank them.

Third graders thanking their teachers...

you can see that they also "wai" their teacher
which is a sign of respect and we do often when we greet or thank people

The New Year is not complete without the Songkran festival...
The kids also got to play water games during their Thai classes

My roommates and our Songkran shirts...more about Songkran
in another post:)

We even got flower clips for our hair!

The kids had been reading a lot the month of March (see other posts about March Reading Month) so we celebrated (again) on the last day of school with ice cream cones!

All kids love ICE CREAM

The line...