I was hesitant to be in the city for Songkran. Thinking I'm not really the kind of person for a massive street party and large crowds. Not really my cup of tea. Despite the fact that I'm moving to New Orleans in a few short months, Mardi Gras... has really never grasped my attention.
Songkran is the Thai New Year. Despite my many trips to this country, I've never been around for it. Thai's (and other Buddhists) calculate the calendar year based on the death of the Buddha; NOT the birth/death of Jesus. Another example of American ethnocentricity: it don't all revolve around us. According to Thai calendars, the Buddha passed away 543 years before Jesus making this year 2556. Although the dates are now "set" (April 13-15), it is a solar holiday celebrating the movement of the sun into Aries.
Songkran is a New Years celebration. It falls in the hottest time of year the year so it is about summer and starting fresh and cleansing, starting a new. Families are encouraged to spend time together. Buddhist visit their temple/wat and perform ceremonial washings of the Buddha statues.
Outside the temples, the insanity begins.
Imagine every person you've ever met with a super soaker/bucket of water/jar of white "blessing" chalk/paint. Now, multiply those 50 people you can name by 10x to 20x easily and that's Silom Road in downtown Bangkok. Not to mention there are festivities at RCA, Khao San and numerous other hot spots around the city, oh and country. Because frankly, BKK is not the place to be for Songkran, Chiang Mai is what you want. Oh well. Because if this was a second or third class celebration than I don't think I'm cool enough to handle a first class party.
My partner-in-crime, Kate, and I managed to find bunny sun glasses as exhibited above. As the day turned into night, my sunglasses, complete with dangling whiskers, turned into evening personality glasses. But frankly I can't imagine a better day/evening/night than acting like a child, spraying people with water, 'blessing' others with well-wishes, eating amazing street food and frankly, drinking cheap beer. Life is truly good.
The bunny glasses are definitely coming home with me. Undoubtably.
It's not all fun and games though, and I was mildly disturbed by the risk associated with this entire day/weekend/week. Large crowds make me anxious. The opportunity for theft. The drunk in-citable crowds. The disaster waiting to happen. And happen it does. The Thai Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department estimated that 218 people died during the first four days of the festival nationwide, including related traffic accidents which as of the 15th of April numbered over 2,000. Last year, over 250 people died nation wide during Songkran according to the Bangkok Post. I mean ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Yes, realize we're dealing with a smaller population.
However, last year in 2012 the National Safety Council in the US estimated 173 Fourth of July related traffic fatalities. Seems comparable, except... we have a population 4.5 times larger than Thailand and the statistics from any source are hard to confirm and attribute to the presence of a holiday. Strangely I will probably learn how to better isolate and analyze these variables while at Tulane.
The point being, can you imagine a festival in the US completely defined by a massive water-fight for young and old? At the end of the day, and throughout it, I came to a serious dilemma : a massive crowd of people, an IV line of beer, and being drenched in water.... what could the problem be?! Oh yeah, peeing. On day 1, I did what any white girl would do : sought out restaurants/guesthouses/bars with toilets for 5-10baht a squat. On day 2, my skirt seemed.... freeing. And as the fire hoses literally rained down on me, I decided "What the fuck, I'm soaking wet and you're about to spray me with a hose. There's probably not toilet paper at that bar. Plus, standing is way more comfortable than squatting."
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