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Revellers enjoy foam parties held to celebrate Sonkran at Bangkok’s Central World (left) and at the Thaphae area of Chiang Mai (right). |
SW celebrates Songkran
By Itsarin Tisantia
Photos courtesy of Bangkok Post
The Songkran festival between April 13 and 15 is held to celebrate the kingdom’s joyful traditional New Year. On this occasion, locals and foreigners alike enjoy splashing water on one another, as well as attending special ceremonies.
For this week’s Freeze Frame, SW takes a look at some of the delightful activities held throughout the country during last year’s Songkran celebrations.
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Mon people in Kanchanaburi’s Sangkla district celebrate the Songkran festival by pouring water into bamboo. During the ceremony to mark the festival, monks’ feet don’t touch the ground as they walk on the backs of Buddhist pilgrims. |
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Numerous locals and foreign visitors join the water-splashing festival at Khaosan Road in Bangkok, using water guns to shoot water at one another. |
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At Phra Kaew Temple in Kamphaeng Phet, locals pour water onto a Buddha image and pray for luck and prosperity for the upcoming New Year. |
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Raman and Mon people join a traditional procession to mark the Songkran festival in Pathum Thani. |
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Since April 14 is also Family Day in Thailand, family members in Ayutthaya’s Bangban district gather to pour water onto mortuary urns to pay respects to their ancestors while preserving traditional New Year celebrations. |
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Children form sand piles as part of Songkran celebrations at Phra Chetuphon Vimolmangklaram Rajwaramahaviharn Temple in Bangkok. |
Exercises
Match each of the following words used in Freeze Frame with the correct definitions from the choices given.
| …… 1. pile | a. a person who travels to a holy place for religious reasons |
| …… 2. prosperity | b. a mass of something that is high in the middle and wider at the bottom than at the top |
| …… 3. mark | c. to celebrate or officially remember an event that you consider to be important |
| …… 4. pilgrim | d. the state of being successful, especially financially |
Vocabulary
- delightful (adj): very pleasant
water gun (n): a toy gun that shoots water
mortuary (adj): a room or building in which dead bodies are kept before they are buried or cremated
urn (n): a tall decorated container, especially one used for holding the ashes of a dead person
preserve (v): to keep a particular quality, feature, etc.
