southeast asia

Celebrate Songkran in Southeast Asia

If your New Years Eve party this past year somehow fell short -- and you got distracted by Valentine's Day and President's Day and missed Chinese New Year too -- here's another chance to usher in a new year: Songkran, a festival celebrating the new year that takes place throughout Southeast Asia, with the epicenter in Thailand. It goes from April 13th to April 15th in 2010.

It's basically one giant water fight. The belief here is that water washes away bad luck, and so it's actually a benevolent act when someone throws an ice-cold bucket of water on your head -- whether a passerby on the street or a person armed with buckets from a flat-bed truck. It's also similarly an act of kindness when you're attacked by water pistols. Plus -- and I would imagine, somewhat separately from dousing zones -- there are beauty contests. I'm going to be in Thailand over this festival, and so I'm going to be sure to pack plenty of plastic baggies for my phone and camera, etc. Heck, I'm ready to have any potential bad luck washed away, and it all sounds much less messy than the Indian holiday Holi, where celebrants throw paint.

Tags: festival, songkran, southeast asia, thailand, world fetivals