Rain Dance and Rituals or Pickups and Pistols – What is Your Water Festival Made of?

Burma Link, April 16, 2014

This week millions of people across Burma and Thailand have been welcoming the New Year by getting wet and wild in the Thingyan water festival – in Thailand known as Songkran.

This unique Buddhist festival originated from India and is celebrated over a period of four to five days, culminating in the New Year. While most locals and foreigners are happy to get very wet during this very hot time of year, the traditional celebration stands in strike contrast to its modern counterpart.

Traditionally a quiet celebration with deeply meaningful rituals calling for rain and good harvest, visiting family members and respecting village elders, Thingyan festival is now more like a nationwide (or nations-wide) water fight. The water festival now celebrated on the streets of Burma and the Thailand-Burma border is far from the quiet celebration it once was, and still is, in rural areas and smaller villages where loud music, foam parties, and water hoses seem a world away.

Whether your celebration is made of rain dance and rituals or pickups and pistols, Burma Link would like to wish you all a New Year with good harvest and rain as well as peace, freedom, and happiness!