HAPPY NEW YEAR! (sa-wat-dee pee mai)

Today is Songkran which is a national holiday here in Thailand. It’s a celebration to mark the start of the Buddhist New Year. Buddha images are bathed, and younger Thais show respect to monks and elders by sprinkled water over their hands.

The word Songkran is derived from the Sanskrit work samkranti, which means astrological passagea also known as the Water Splashing Festival.

Songkran is also known as the water festival. It celebrates water as a ritual of washing away negativity from the year before. People celebrating Songkran take part in a traditional pouring of water that symbolises washing away back luck and sins from a person’s life.

However, Songkran on Koh Tao is usually celebrated by having an island-wide water fight which is great fun. Not this year though, due to Covid 19

This year I went out with a few volunteers and just did a snorkel clean-up and beach clean which was fun.