Water Throwing Festival - The Biggest Water Fight in the World

Many people in Thailand are all waiting for this time of year to come (especially teenagers). This is because on Songkran festival everybody can throw water at each other without people getting mad or moody. If you are on your way to work but you dont want to get wet then avoid walking along the road or getting on a bus that doesnt have any windows. They take great delight in drenching whoever they see. Young people typically throw water on foreigners, strangers, holidaymakers, buses and motorcyclists, anything that moves. This festival also helps all the people in Thailand to cool off during the hottest days of the year – around 100F or 40C.

The best celebrations usually happen in Chiang Mai, so if you want to join and celebrate the water festival then Chiang Mai should be the right place for you. When considering the spiritual and religious aspects of the festival, many people might think it is very rude and outrageous that people nowadays use water pistols, garden hoses, water balloons and buckets to drench each other. But now, the throwing of water has become the most fun part of the festval. Sometimes you can even see some elephants get in on the action, with riders encouraging the animals to use their trunks to spray whole carloads of passerbys.

In fact, Thailand has set a Guinness World Record for the largest water pistol fight that involved 3,477 people in Bangkok. The centuries-old tradition remains so popular that many people from all over the world travel to this country to join in the water fights.

Songkran is also a time for the Thais to visit and pay respects to elders, including friends, monks, neighbors and of course, family members and relatives. They will visit a wat (Buddhist monastery) to pray as well as make offerings to the monks. Statues and pictures of Buddha are cleaned by gently pouring perfumed water over them. They believe doing this will bring prosperity and good luck for the New Year.

In some cities, such as Chiang Maei, images of Buddha from most of the city’s important monasteries are paraded through the streets so all of the people there can toss water at them. Besides washing household Buddha images, Thais also take this great opportunity to give their home a thorough cleaning. In fact, it is this tradition that kicked off the more recent tradition of soaking family, friends and strangers with water.