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Festivals in Chiang Mai
Songkran Festival
For three days in April, the entire
population of Chiang Mai gathers along the moats that surround the historic
section of the city. Drenched and smiling faces pack the sidewalks, while
pickup trucks decked out in festive ribbons and special paint, as well as
tuk-tuks with their roofs taken off, inch bumper-to-bumper down the road.
Children wear traditional Thai outfits and teens sport water pistols and
festive masks. Bars blast traditional and Western music, while young Thais
and Westerners dance and throw water from their doorways. Huge plastic
barrels full of water sit at small intervals on the sidewalks to serve as
communal refilling stations. Carts piled high with blocks of ice make their
way down the street, making a lucrative business of cooling people’s water
supplies. This is the Songkran water festival.
The Meaning of the Songkran Festival
Songkran marks the end of the hot season and the beginning of the cooling,
refreshing rains which cleanse the countryside from the thick smoke caused
by clearing and burning fields. Water is a precious resource in Thai
culture, being the essential nourishment for rice and life in general.
Songkran is like the beginning of spring in the West; it generates new life
and the new rice season. Most importantly, it marks the traditional New Year
of Thailand. It is the time to wash away the bad luck and impurities of the
old year and begin anew with a clean soul. All of the rituals of Songkran
revolve around cleansing and preparing for the new year.
Traditionally, the first day of this 3-day festival is the day for “spring
cleaning” - getting rid of all the dirt literal and spiritual - collected
during the past year. Buddha images and shrines are meticulously washed. You
are expected to burn your trash on this day and wear new clothes the next
day, which marks the new year. Anything old or no longer of use will bring
bad luck if carried into the new year.
The second day should be marked with optimism, positive thoughts, and kind
words to ensure a prosperous new year. On the final day, people pray and
make do good deeds to initiate the new year. Extra alms are offered to
monks, and sand is brought to the temples in order to replace the dirt that
they have carried out with feet in the past year. The sand is shaped into
little stupas - miniature sand - sculptures which you can view at
temples during the Songkran festival. Buddha statues are paraded through the
streets in order for people can throw water at them, respectfully “bathing”
the holy images.
Throughout the festival, a strong emphasis is placed on renewing traditional
family values by showing respect and deference to elders. This is where the
practice of throwing water comes from; it began by pouring scented water on
the hands of elders to show respect and ask for blessings for the new year.
Loy Krathong (Light
Festival)
Thailand's waterways rivers, klongs, even hotel swimming pools will be ablaze with dazing lights, when the Kingdom celebrates "Loy Krathong" one of the year's most-awaited festivals.
The annual festival, also celebrated in other neighboring countries, is held on the full moon day of the 12th lunar month. Thais place great importance in this event and while the best celebrations are said to be held in Bangkok, Ayutthaya, Sukhothai and Chiangmai, the event and while the best celebrations are said to be held in Bangkok, Ayutthaya, Sukhothai and Chiangmai, the event is marked with great funfair all over the Kingdom.
The festival is believed to have its beginnings at least in Thailand in Sukhothai Province, north of Bangkok, almost 800 years ago. A stone inscription from the Sukhothai Period describes an ancient Loy Krathong festival : "There are four main gates in the city of Sukhothai. On festive occasions, people jam the city to witness the light festival in progress. It's as if the city would burst."
When the ancient Sukhothai city was restored to its former splendor as the Historical Park of Sukhothai, efforts were made to bring back ancient festivals and their legendary festive atmosphere. This brought back the light festival of Loy Krathong. It has remained a major attraction since.
"Loy" means to float, and "krathong" means a leaf cup.
This moniker seems apt as most floating objects you see during Loy Krathong nights are flowers formed like cups, if not artificial petals that look like cups in many angles.
It is a most colorful festival. In most areas where it is celebrated, you will see Thai women resplendent in colorful attire, hair festooned with flowers, and gaily-dressed men, also fully garbed, gather with floats in their hands wherever there's water.
As the krathongs meander while making their way downstream, you'll often see little boys swim to them to retrieve the tiny cargo of coins before releasing them down the "river of no return".
Explanation of the festival's significance vary. One belief is that as the floats embark on their journey, they take with it the owner's misfortunes. Most Thais also believe the floating of the krathong is a yearly sloughing off of all the sins and calamities that have befallen a person.
On a lighter note, it's also believed that lovers can forecast the fortune of their romance by watching their krathong float downstream to gather.
Krathongs that remain together into the darkness, promise life-long partnership. This custom's religious significance is somewhat debatable, though. Some say Loy Krathong is an act of remission to the goddess Mae Khongkha, the mother of water.
Western psychologists say it symbolizes the egg's prenatal consciousness of its journey of the ovary down the fallopian tube to conception, a legend (for explanation) quite common to Eastern and Western cultures. The Biblical story of Moses in the Bulrushes is similar.
Whatever its significance, you shouldn't fail to watch or join in a Loy Krathong festival for a once in a life time experience. Check out the hotels or your travel agent for a schedule.