When? 10th to 15th April.
Local times may vary. In some regions it can be from April 1st to 18th, like in Chiang Mai. Allow for a few days afterwards when there are still some wet street parties.

Where? All over Southeast Asia. Sale of alcohol is banned in many areas as it causes too many deadly traffic accidents.


Why? Songkran is sanskrit for "Change". Pouring water over your friends and family is done as a blessing that washes away bad karma from the last year and brings joy and happiness for the new year. It is one of the most important festivals in Southeast Asia. See our wet Songkran photos !

Are we having fun? Absolutely!

This really is the biggest wet festival anywhere and is celebrated all over Southeast Asia with millions of soaking wet participants. All over Thailand millions of people go out and soak everybody they can. But the wildest party is in Chiang Mai, along the 8km long moat of the old city.

Please dress well for New Year

Getting wet fully clothed is the norm, especially during Songkran. Please be polite and do likewise. People dress up for Songkran and wear good looking jeans and shirts. Some wear nice sports jackets or hoodies and really love it when you pour water over these clothes or join them for a swim. The nicer you dress the more people will enjoy pouring water over you. Also remember, the sunshine is intense in Thailand.

Happy Tradition

The Songkran Festival is celebrated in each city, town or village. During these days everybody gets soaked in the ritual blessings of pouring water. If they see you walking around dry then you obviosly have not been blessed yet and they quickly take care of it. Only when you're soaking wet have you been fully blessed. This then becomes a nationwide fun party. They throw water with cans and hose pipes, and jump into the canals or lakes, or push you in to ritually bless everyone with water in a rowdy celebration of the Thai New Year.

The water-splashing festivities stem from the Thai tradition of pouring water over Buddha statues in homes and temples to bring them merit for the New Year, and then dousing grandparents in perfumed water to bring them good luck.

Fun in the Streets

In recent years, Thais have taken the revelries out into the streets and now offer their blessings to anyone who comes within their range. Foreigners are not exempt and get singled out for a really good soaking.

"I don't think people will get mad," said 18-year-old Fu Kantha, just after drenching passengers in a passing bus. "Today they will forgive us." Fu and his cohorts take up positions on the streets in the morning. Open-windowed public buses and motorcyclists are their prime targets. Taxi drivers help out by whizzing down their electric windows so attackers can douse their passengers. "It's fun to splash many people, that's why we throw water on the buses," Fu said, as he refueled his squirt-gun and buckets.

People in Bangkok were getting off easy. The natives of northeastern Thailand said that in the countryside nobody is spared a soaking, and many are even sprinkled with powder when wet. Everyone spends the day drinking and dancing. In the country villages they keep the traditions, so it's a lot of fun.

As teens and parents return from the traditional washing of the Buddha statues in the temples of Phuket, they bring out the high-powered water hose pipes and huge garbage cans filled with water. Then the real water fights begin.

Wackywet News Network (WNN)

Each year we aim to transmit news and pictures from Chiang Mai as fast as we can, usually within hours of the event. That means Europe gets them around midday and the Americas in the early morning of the same day (USA only after approval by Homeland Security and religious leaders).

We deploy a news team with waterproof digital cameras to mingle with the crowd. They get soaked immediately and stay wet all day. All photographers must be able to swim fully clothed so they can cross the moat to where the best action is.

In the evening our international panel of readers (from Belgium, England, Germany, and Thailand) picks the best photos of the day. We then edit them with GIMP, a Linux based photo editing suite, and upload them via Singatel to the Intereliant Server in London Telehouse.