Songkran and the power of play

This week is Thai New Year and we have had so much fun joining the Songkran celebrations.

Thais mark the beginning of their New Year by splashing water on each other to wash away the misfortune of the passing year. Traditionally, they use small bowls to sprinkle flower-scented water on the hands of elders as a sign of respect and blessing.

Scented water and buckets for sale on Tha Phae Road

Over the years though and especially in Chiang Mai, Songkran has grown into a big city-wide water fight lasting 5 days. It's Thailand's most famous festival, it's chaotic (especially in certain places in town) and as far as my boys are concerned, it's pretty much the best holiday in Thailand!

Be afraid, be very afraid!

Water-gun battles between open tuk-tuks and pedestrians on Tha Phae Road 

Refuelling at one of the many tubs placed by vendors outside their stores to facilitate the fun. 

One of the things I love about Songkran is that it feels like a real community-wide event. It is played on the streets with people you've never met before. Old and young, tourists and locals, rich and poor are all mixed up together. Those lines don't exist when you have a loaded water-gun in hand and that's a really good thing in a world normally so divided.

Last year we played with some lovely Thai ladies who were visiting from Bangkok. They invited us to play with them again this year but sadly we couldn't find them in the mayhem.

These ladies taught us how it was done in our first Songkran last year!

This year we played downtown with a mix of tourists and locals and we also played a lot at home with our Burmese neighbors. These are poor refugee families living opposite us who usually we struggle to communicate with. But no language is needed for water play!

I am reminded a little of the Holi celebrations in India. There, we didn't participate in the city-wide festival in the same way since the kids were less comfortable with having coloured powder rubbed into their faces. But Holi has the same community focus, the same chaos, the same focus on play and the same sense of invitation to all.

This was our own very tame version of Holi in our back yard.

I think what these festivals have taught me is the power of play to bring people together. Perhaps it can even influence how we think about our own traditional festivities. I'm pretty sure our Burmese neighbors would feel very uncomfortable if we invited them over for Christmas dinner. But there's something about play that strips away those social, economic and cultural boundaries. I loved seeing that this Songkran and I long for more of it. 

So Happy Thai New Year to all my friends and family! May we find ways to cross the lines that divide our communities in this year ahead. 


Footnote: If you would like to see more of what Songkran really looks like, click here for a fun 1-minute video. (My photos really don't do it justice!)