April 13, 2011. Young Thai monks pray during the Songran festival at the meditation center Sakhira-Dammasatan in Bangkok. It is considered that on this holiday the Thai new year arrives. Songkran is also known as a water festival: according to folk beliefs, on this day water washes off bad luck. On this holiday it is traditional to bring dainty dishes to Buddhist priests as a sign of honor to the Buddhist philosophy and also throw water. The tradition of water throwing has acquired a range of new meanings with time, which are connected with Buddhism and the end of the hot season. Water means purification from all negative things, accumulated during the previous year, and it is refreshing in a hot season. Besides, the festival participants get covered with white clay or talc. It is considered that clay protects from dirt (both practically and figuratively), and talc is used by the population for the same reason as clay in old times. Thus, to cover one’s body with clay or talc means purification. The Thai population is purified in the time of Songkran all over the country, in all cities’ streets, even in the official institutions. The holiday also marks the new year according to the ancient Indian astrological calendar (which is based not on the tropical zodiac cycle, as in Western countries, but on sidereal one), when the sun moves from the Pisces into the Aries zodiac, as well as the change of the season. There are three seasons in Thailand: rain season, and a cold and a hot season. Thai New Year marks the apex of the hot season, which is shortly followed by the rain season, marked by the traditional holiday Khao Phansa.
