Asian Culture

Thai New Year, or Songkran is
one of the main festivities in
Thailand, usually coincides with
the days between April 13th and
15th of the Gregorian calendar.
This celebration has its origins in
a traditional Hindu festival, the
Sankranti. The Songkran is a
great water festival, which
symbolizes purification and
renovation, so when people
throw water at each other on the
streets, it signifies the renewal of
each person for the beginning
year. It is also a tradition that the
day before the beginning of the
celebrations, people clean their
houses very well.
The Songkran has three stages,
distributed in the three days that
the celebration lasts. On the first
day, it is a tradition for women to
prepare traditional recipes that
will be eaten over the next few
days. It is worth highlighting the
role of the female figure in this
ritual, as is them who must know
and follow recipes that their
mothers and grandmothers have
taught them, in order to reproduce
these preparations, which will be
offered to the monks in the
temples.