สวัสดีปีใหม่ (sa-wat-dii bpii mai) or Happy New Year to you and yours! Like most everywhere, here in Thailand we celebrated the turning of a calendar year with countdowns, fireworks and lots of people getting together. However January 1st is not the only New Year in Thailand, we have a couple of celebrations for that; three of them in fact.
Gregorian New Year
Of course we have the Gregorian New Year here. New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day are national holidays. The biggest places to celebrate are Bangkok and Chiang Mai. A bunch of Peace Corps volunteers headed up to Chiang Mai to ring in the New Year watching fireworks and setting off floating lanterns. It was a blast. Many people in Thailand return to their home villages to spend time with their families and the lines at the bus station to return to Bangkok after the holiday are sure to be bananas. Glad I’m headed in the opposite direction.
Chinese New Year
The next New Year celebration that we will have here in Thailand is the Chinese New Year, taking place on February 19. There is a large population of Thai Chinese in Thailand and as a result, this holiday has spread around the country and is celebrated even by Thais who are not of Chinese descent.
One of the places with the biggest Chinese New Year celebrations is Suphan Buri, where I first lived two years ago for Pre-Service Training.
Just like in China, people will wear red, visit the Chinese temples in the area and light off fireworks to scare away the bad spirits from the previous year. One thing that the people here in Thailand do to celebrate this holiday is in the morning they will park their cars out in front of their house, turn on the head lights and set out food and drinks as offerings to the spirits.
This coming new year will be the Year of the Sheep, and the year that is coming to a close is the Year of the Horse. Most people in Thailand also know what year they were born in according the Chinese years and will make merit at those statues that are sometimes at temples.
Thai New Year, Songkran
Finally, the big one in Thailand is the Thai New Year, known as Songkran. This is always from April 13-15, the hottest time of the year and is extremely well known for the water throwing aspect of the holiday.
It begins with people going to the temple and pouring water on the Buddha statue to clean it off and symbolically wash away the bad luck from the previous year. There is also usually a ceremony to pour water on the elders’ hands to honor them and from there it moves to sprinkling water on everyone and finally devolves into what looks like an all-out water fight.
I’ve had a blast at both of the Songkran celebrations I was able to experience here in Thailand and I am a little disappointed I will miss it this year, but I am not sad about missing out on hot season.
Whenever you celebrate your New Year, I hope that you have lots of growth, learning and happiness ahead of you!