How Do Thai People Celebrate New Year

　　　Thai people love to celebrate and even though 95% of Thais are Buddhist they generally still celebrate Christmas and New Year and follow the same traditions as many Westerners. In Thailand at Christmas you will still find Christmas trees, decorations and Christmas songs.
　　Even though the Thais still celebrate the traditional Christmas and new year the official Thai new year is called Songkran. The festival of Songkran is celebrated from the 13th to the 15th of April. Other countries which observe this traditional holiday are; Laos, Cambodia, certain parts of China and Punjabi new years fall on the same day in the calendar. Songkran means astrological passing ans settles on the beginning of the sun making its passage northwards. In Thailand Songkran falls on the hottest days of the years in Thailand at the end of the dry season.
　　The festival of Songkran was not always celebrated in all areas of Thailand but now it is celebrated by the majority of Thais, even in the far south. The most famous celebrations are to be found in the northern city of Chiang Mai where the festivities carry in for six days at the minimum. Due to the huge celebrations which take place there Chiang Mai has become a major tourist hot spot at that particular time of year.
　　As with any national holiday certain traditions are observed during Songkran, customarily Songkran was about traveling to re-unite and catch up with one's elders and extended relations. On the eve of Songkran, the 12th the Thais spring cleans their houses and burn any rubbish; in the belief that rubbish brought into the new year can equate to and bring with it bad luck. Now the Thais observe a rather more boisterous tradition of water throwing; where people are themselves with buckets and containers, full of water and drench people as the go by. Many position themselves at the side of the road and lie in wait. Some Thais also observe the more religious aspect of Songkran by visiting Buddhist monasteries, where they pray and offer food to the monks.
　　Of course as with any national holiday food plays a bit part in the celebrations and what you are served is dependent on what part of Thailand you are in; there is the popular pad Thai noodles and Thai chicken green curry called Gaeng Kiew Wahn Gai. Gaeng Kiew Wahn Gai is made up of green curry paste, coconut milk, aubergines (egg plants), Kaffir Lime Leaves and chili.