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VOL. 12.3

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By Collin Piprell
 

In Thailand, New Year comes three times a year — on the 1st of January, at Chinese New Year (anywhere from late January to mid-February), and at Songkran (13-14 April). And why not? If once is sanuk, a whole bunch of times has got to be even more fun. (We will forget the multiple mornings after the night before, when we speak of this fun.) And think of all the New Years’ resolutions you get to make. Thais are renowned for their joie de vivre, their capacity to take pleasure in the moment. So why not, then, multiply the moments to be enjoyed? The more occasions for merriment the better. This is the Thai Way. But of course there is more to the curious abundance of New Years you find in Thailand than the simple inclination to have a good time as often as possible.

Traditionally, there was only one New Year in Thailand. Songkran, the start of the Buddhist year, is still celebrated between April 13 and 15, at the height of the hot season. Translated literally as “the passing of”, Songkran marks the beginning of the solar calendar, when the sun passes from the sign of Aries into Taurus. In the rural community — and until recently Thailand was almost entirely an agricultural society — this has been a perfect time to take a break from the business of earning a living. The rice harvest is in, and replanting has to await the coming of the rains. For centuries, this has at the same time presented an opportunity for young men and women to meet socially, turning the lull in the seasonal cycle of labour to matters of courtship.

It is a time of joy, and Thais have long marked the occasion by making merit — by offering food to monks and by releasing caged birds, turtles and fish.

The latter custom had its origins where villagers would collect fish stranded in the pools left as ponds and canals dried up in the heat, saving them till Songkran for release into the river. Not only was this a means of making merit, it served as an effective conservationist programme. You still see vendors offering these creatures for release all over the country, pyramids of tiny wooden cages filled with twittering birds, metal tanks swimming with turtles, eels and fish. On Phuket, you can make special conservationist merit by participating in the annual Songkran release of sea turtle hatchlings, thereby helping to conserve these endangered species.

Water is a central element in the festival. Buddha images, both public and private, are washed with lustral water, while the whole house is given an especially thorough cleaning. The idea seems to be to start the New Year fresh and clean both in body and spirit. Most noticeably to the casual visitor, though, Thais also lay in wait outside to douse each other (and any passing visitor) with water — a fine and refreshing experience, given the prevailing weather.

The custom of throwing water is probably in part only an exuberant spillover of the tradition of pouring lustral water over the hands of monks and respected elders. More basically, however, the return of water to the parched soil is an expression of hope and anticipation, an invitation to the cooling, life-giving rainy season to come.

This practice, it is believed, migrated long ago to Thailand from India by way of Burma. It thus came first to Chiang Mai, where it is still practised with special enthusiasm. In those early days, there was little communication, no easy links between Chiang Mai and Bangkok, and the water-throwing took a long time to reach the capital. When it did, though, it was embraced with such abandon that the police officially had to ban it as a traffic hazard.

The prohibition has never really taken hold, however, and today if you ride a Bangkok bus during Songkran you must still be prepared for a drenching. Along the streets you find gleeful knots of people heaving buckets of water at any passing vehicle. If you’re driving, keep your windows closed. If you’re on foot, on the other hand, you may get ambushed by a careening tuk-tuk jammed full of young revellers armed with pails of water.

The custom has spread to all the provinces, even as far south as Phuket. During Songkran, Patong Beach, for example, is no place for hydrophobics. You can pretty well count on getting wet. It’s all in the spirit of good fellowship, of course, and people are pleased to receive as good as they give out. Join in the fun, by all means.

The Other New Years

Songkran is the original Thai New Year. But 1 January has now been established as the official version. Thailand has adopted the Gregorian calendar, with economic development in the modern age demanding a common world-wide standard.

This newer national holiday is celebrated in much the same way Westerners enjoy the occasion, though as always with a distinctive Thai accent. Many people appreciate the excuse to pai tee-oh, to go out to eat and drink and be merry, visiting with family and friends. Hotels and bars all around the island offer special meals or parties, while the streets on beaches such as Patong have a real festival atmosphere.

The third Thai New Year's falls somewhere in late January through February. Many visitors to Thailand don’t realize that the population of Bangkok is more than 50 percent ethnic Chinese; and the Chinese New Year is by far the most important festival of the entire year for this large group. It marks the beginning of the first lunar month and lasts three-five days, depending upon how enthusiastic the individual celebrant gets about proceedings. Phuket has a large ethnic Chinese population, who have tended to be people of the town rather than the coast, which has been settled more by fishermen of Malay and Chao Le (Sea Gypsy) origin. For the visitor to Phuket Town, the preparations, which start more than a week ahead of time, can be the most impressive part of the festival. Chinese shopfronts and homes display red-paper banners emblazoned in gold with the Chinese characters for good health, good luck, and prosperity. Special foods and gifts of the season are piled high in the markets, and shoppers throng even more densely than usual. You might also go to a Chinese Buddhist temple. These are quite different from the ethnic Thai varieties, and at this time of year they offer especially colourful glimpses of an ancient culture. So Thailand presents us with a veritable smorgasbord of festivals. And the three separate New Year's point to an admirable Thai trait — the readiness to accept diverse elements and make them their own.