Songkran Is Thailand’s Splashing New Year’s Festival, When Everyone Gets Out a Super Soaker and Prepares to Get Drenched

The memorable tradition has a deep cultural history rooted in Buddhism and increasing global notoriety for its rowdy water fights

Ryley Graham | Correspondent

April 13, 2026

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April in Thailand is a scorcher, with temperatures regularly reaching 95 degrees Fahrenheit in the capital city of Bangkok and surpassing 100 degrees in other regions. But in the middle of April, locals and tourists alike will have a friendly battle with a novel respite from the heat: water fights.

Spring festivals in Myanmar, Laos and other parts of Southeast Asia, as well as in some regions of China, have long used water as a symbol of renewal to welcome a new year. Songkran, perhaps the most internationally famous iteration, sees people fill Thailand’s streets with squirt guns and splashing buckets.

“The most famous part of the festival is the massive water fights," explained Worapa Angkhasirisap, director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, to BBC News in 2025.

Flowing beneath the fun are centuries-old traditions. The word Songkran has origins in the Sanskrit word Saṁkrānti and refers to the “movement” or “passage” of the sun from one Vedic zodiac sign to another. Songkran, like similar Southeast Asian festivals, specifically coincides with the movement of the sun into the sign of Mesha, the first Vedic sign and the beginning of a new year. (Mesha corresponds to Aries in the Western zodiac cycle.)

Scholars think that the inspiration for Songkran may relate to Holi, the Hindu spring water festival historically celebrated across South Asia, or Makar Sankranti, a holiday that also marks a zodiac transition. Though the exact details of the cultural exchange are unknown, Songkran is deeply rooted in Buddhism, which originated in India before spreading across Asia via trade routes. Today, the vast majority of people in Thailand are Buddhist.

“The holiday was the official start of the Thai new year until 1888, when Siam (now Thailand) adopted a solar calendar similar to the internationally used Gregorian calendar, whose new year begins January 1,” writes Erin Blakemore for National Geographic.

Beyond observing the changing zodiac year, Songkran is about celebrating new beginnings. Like similar festivals, the water splashed, sprayed and dripped during Songkran represents a means of cleansing the past. On the first day of the festival, people typically clean their homes, public spaces, temples and schools.

This is also when many will participate in the Buddhist practice of Song Nam Phra, pouring scented water over Buddha statues, and Rod Nam Dum Hua, pouring water on elders' hands to seek blessings.

These and other practices extend back to the early days of Songkran, and it is these long-running facets of the holiday that earned Songkran a place on UNESCO’s list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2023.

By the third day of Songkran, austere traditions give way to the modern revelry that has become renowned throughout the world. Often donning Aloha shirts, merrymakers gather in the streets, soaking each other by any means available in massive water battles. Street vendors sell water guns, children fill buckets, and nobody is safe from soaking.

It is this lively tradition, more than anything, that has turned Songkran into a tourist attraction. Visitors from all over the world travel to participate in the fun, welcomed by the country’s tourism authorities. This development (plus a cameo in a 2025 episode of the TV show White Lotus) has brought Songkran to the global stage, but some see it as straying from the festival’s principles.

“While rooted in traditional values of family and community, [Songkran] has adapted into a more carnival-like celebration in the modern era,” wrote Shiyuan Huang in her 2024 dissertation on the evolution of Songkran for Chulalongkorn University in Thailand.

The increasingly audacious observance of Songkran has had drawbacks for the country.

“Songkran is very inclusive—the water splashing is open to everyone, although it's always important to understand and respect the cultural boundaries,” Jurairat Mongkolwongsiri, vice president of sales at Centara Hotels & Resorts in Bangkok, told BBC News last year. “For example, visitors must avoid throwing water on monks or elders and try not to spray water directly in anyone’s face.”

The festival has resulted in excess water use in a country where climate change increasingly threatens water security. Trash is another worry, especially in tourist-dense areas of large cities. While scholars and environmental advocates have raised concerns, Thailand tourism officials are hesitant to slow the festival’s momentum.

Ryley Graham | Read More

Ryley Graham is a freelance journalist based in New York City. Her work has appeared in outlets such as National Geographic, Earth Island Journal and USA Today.