Enjoyment and having fun has a prominent place in Thai culture, and experiencing fun with water and that too in the middle of excessive hot days can simply be awesome. Thailand’s faces extreme hot days in the month April, when the whole nation become mad or furious about pleasant water fights and street parties that end for almost a week.
This water festival- Songkran is referred as the Thai New Year which is celebrated during April 13-15 every year. Throughout Songkran, nearly all offices including banks as well as household-run shops and eateries remain closed entirely, though big shopping malls usually remain open.
Bangkok receives a bulk mass departure, as at least one-half of Thais migrate back to their home towns for family re-unions. And their place is taken by tourists visiting Bangkok especially to relish in one of the most colorful and merry times of the year. The most apparent ways of rejoicing Songkran are throwing water and putting chalks that can be easily seen on the streets for complete three days. It’s unimaginable to remain dry as people are invading the streets with guns, buckets and hoses fully loaded with water. However, Songkran originally was not about wetting each other.
Traditionally, during Songkran people used to show respect to Lord Buddha as well as to elders by softly pouring a little amount of water over their hands and feet. Thai people do still not only throw water on each other to celebrate SongKran, but they also go to the Buddhist temples, wash their Buddha idols, clean their houses and fire things they are not of their use now, and make New Year resolutions.
Tom's Fashion, the leading Bangkok Tailor, suggests travelers to carry valuable items like cell phone, money, camera and passport in a plastic wrap to save your items from getting wet. And if you are travelling Bangkok around this festive season, then don’t forget to spare an extra day for getting stitched your custom made suits Bangkok, another specialty of this magical land.