Thailand Rings In Traditional New Year

2015.04.15

Revelers celebrate the watery Songkran festival at Silom Road in Bangkok, April 13, 2015. AFP

People mark the Thai New Year by worshipping at the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok, April 14, 2015. [BenarNews]

Thai expats carry a Buddha statue during a Songkran parade in Hong Kong, April 12, 2015. [AFP]

Suds cover New Year’s revelers in Bangkok, April 13, 2015. [AFP]

Thai dancers perform at the Erawan Shrine, April 14, 2015. [BenarNews]

A man offers incense at the Erawan Shrine, April 14, 2015. [BenarNews]

Revelers celebrate Songkran with a splash in Narathiwat province, in Thailand’s Deep South, April 13, 2015. [AFP]

Kids in Bangkok join in on the fun near the Rajaprasong intersection, April 14, 2015. [BenarNews]

In Hong Kong, girls wear traditional Thai costumes as they participate in Songkran festivities, April 12, 2015. [AFP]

A Thai woman with baby powder smeared on her face reacts during the Songkran festival in Hong Kong, April 12, 2015. [AFP]

The people of Thailand this week rang in their traditional New Year’s festival, a water-filled custom going back to the Sukhothai Kingdom of the 13th to 14th centuries but that is believed to have originated in northern India.

Thais at home and abroad celebrated the three-day holiday, Songkran, by reuniting with their loved ones, making religious offerings, and, of course, having fun with water fights, parties and parades in the streets. From Bangkok to Hong Kong and Thailand’s conflict-ridden Deep South, Thai citizens and expats took some time off their day-to-day worries to celebrate the new year.