Happy New Year !
Hi Cris and Everyone,
How are you all doing? What did you get up to at the weekend? I have a special message for you this Monday morning and that’s SAWATDI PHIMAI! That’s Thai for ‘Happy New Year’. It’s Songkran here in Thailand this weekend, from 13th to 15th April, which is the traditional Thai New Year. It is one of the most important cultural festivals in the whole Thai calendar and one that all Thais look forward to, as it is a lot of fun. So I’m off work, at home relaxing with the family.
Historically, Songkran is a 3 day festival. On the eve of the festival, housewives give their homes a thorough spring clean. They clean out all the old and unwanted things lying around the house to receive the coming of the New Year Day on the afternoon of ‘Maha Songkran Day’, which means ‘a big change’ and is the first official day of the Songkran holiday. On this day, people pour water on Buddha images and monks, sprinkle water over the family elders and ask for their blessings. In ancient times, old people were actually given a bath and then dressed in new clothes given to them by younger family members, as a mark of respect for the New Year.
This doesn’t happen so much now, but old and young dress up in their new clothes and visit their local temple. They also throw water over anyone else they can get their hands on, which means that out on the streets, all you can see are people with buckets of water, water guns and cannons, waiting to dowse anyone who passes by. You have to be prepared to get soaking wet when you go outdoors during Songkran. But, as this festival takes place during the hot season, it can actually be quite refreshing!
(image from http://www.popwuping.com/stuff/picts/songkran.jpg)
The 2nd days is ‘Nao Day’, which means the day after Songkran day and the day before the official Thai New Year’s Day, or ‘Taleung Sok Day’. On these days, people relax at home with friends and family…. and continue to throw water on everyone. Lots of staff from my office have gone back to the provinces to be with their parents, as one of the things you have to do at Songkran is pay respect to your parents.
Songkran is a really happy, fun festival. The Thais believe that by sharing their joy with each other, and having fun, they can uphold traditions of ‘keeping a good mind (i.e. thinking good thoughts), good manners, kindness and gratitude’. What major festivals do people in Argentina celebrate, Cris?
OK, over to language now. Here are the answers to the preposition questions I set you.
1. Round the corner FROM my house (not *of*)
2. Talk ON the phone (not *by*) (it is wrong to say *talk by phone*)
3. Correct - I’m ON the balcony (not *in*)
4. I take the bus FROM the corner of my house (you said ‘at’, which is OK)
5. Correct - He helped me TO attach these pictures (not *with*)
Cris, the pasta recipie was delicious. Thanks! We used blue cheese instead of the mozzarella (as its difficult to get good fresh mozzarella here). Steve and I usually eat at around 8-9pm, which is quite late for Thais, but we find it’s too hot to eat before this time. Thais tend to have their evening meal much earlier, at around 6-7pm. The kids eat at 6pm, then we put them to bed so we can relax and have mummy and daddy time. The picture of Steve at the table was taken on Christmas Eve this year. We decided just to have a collation of meats, cheeses and pickles, with some wine of course. Yummy!
To finish, did Ernesto enjoy the Rod Stewart Concert? And you were going to tell us about what you like to read.
Right - I'm off to dowse a few people by the swimming pool with water. Catch you all later :-)
Anne
xxx
thorough spring clean – a big clean
to sprinkle – to put a little bit (of water) on something e.g. ‘to sprinkle salt on something’, means to put a little salt on it
to dowse - to throw a lot (of water) on something e.g. ‘to dowse my chips with ketchup’, means to put a lot of ketchup on my chips!
to uphold – to maintain
to tend to do something – to usually do something
a collation - a mixture
Comments
Hi,Anne What a fancinating festival Thailand has! I love the idea of keeping traditional family value and showing their respect to the old which is getting more amd more lacking nowadays. I didn't know the Thai New Year without you.I think I must send a happy new year card to my Thai friend.Thank you so much for the information.The weather has been very lousy.We were caught in hailstone and we've been dowsed a few time by April shower when we went out for bike rides.Enjoy your holiday and see you soon!XX
Hi Anne! How are you? I envy you (in positive, of course) for your long holiday this weekend. Have you celebrated the "Sawatdi Phimai" with your family? I think that this kind of festivals helps people to mantain traditions all over the world. It's also a wonderful oportunity to share your time with family and friends. In Spain, the most popular family's days are Christmas' holidays. Have a nice day! Mercè
Hi Anne and Everyone, Hope everyone is doing great. I was not able to access internet for the past two weeks. I read all the posts. It was wonderful. Great job Anne! Incidentally I too celebrated my Tamil New Year yesterday. Keep rocking! Anne. Cheers! Praveen Raj
Sawatdi Phimai, Anne! Sorry, but one idea of being dowsed to inspire a horror to me. Here, in Ireland, is quite cold for a spring so I am constantly needed to turn on my electrical heater (I hope the last two words are meaning something because I have not found a suitable word in my dictionary and made up them myself). I wish I was in Thailand or any another warm country now! Dear Anne, thank you for your blog and correcting Cris’s mistakes: it helps me too. (It is interesting, have I to write Cristina’s short name in possessive case as Cris’s or Crise’s maybe? I am embarrassing by two “s” together in this case). My weekend I spent learning English, of course. It is not loading me down because I like to learn and I prefer to sit with my textbooks and computer than go out everywhere. The books and computer are much more interesting to me and if I have some free time I prefer to spend it for translating books. I hate an entertainment like go out, sit in a pub end so on, I hate even to go to a cinema, preferring to watch a video instead. I am boring at any parties too. I like to attend ballet lessons (although I newer was a ballerina) but I cannot to find a good ballet teacher in Dublin, so I don’t attend them now. I do gym and yoga instead of them. Some time I spend in a swimming pool and sometimes I am cycling. Dublin is a big city with a very bad transport communications so I use my bike very often. I hope you were not overloaded by domestic, work and other problems and had time for yourself. Bye,
Anne, HAPPY VISHU Have you ever been to Kerala in India? If not, think about a holiday to visit to enjoy the greenery and beauty of backwaters. Today is Vishu for the South Indians. Vishu is an astronomical New Year day festival with rituals and customs according to the Hindu beliefs in Kerala ( a South Indian state in India). The main rituals are Vishukkani (the first thing or object people are supposed to see in the morning - consists of 'kanikonna' flowers,fruits, vegetables,a small mirror etc in a tray) and vishukkaineettam ( the first thing-mainly coin or a note- supposed to be accepted or received in hand from the oldest and respected people in the family) and a yummy vegetarian feast with more than 10 - 15 dishes. As a custom people go to temple in new clothes to do special prayers. Have a nice day off, Anne .
Amazing! Happy New Year then! It sounds a bit strange for us... :) Have a good day.
Hello Anne. It’s amazingly to celebrate New Year twice. I think living in Thai doesn’t mean not to celebrate traditional for Europeans New Year. A few days holiday is nice chance to slow down day-by-day working life and to comfort both yourself and your family. So Happy New Year one more time! Have fun and relaxation. Good bye!
Hi Anne, Tamil Puththandu Valthukkal. It’s a greeting on Tamil New Years day. We celebrated Tamil New Year day yesterday. Usually we celebrate on 14th April. Because of leaf year this year we had one day ahead of the normal day. Chithrai is the first month of Tamil calendar. All the auspicious days like marriage, house warming ceremony and temple festivals fixed based on this calendar year. The present ruling Tamil Nadu government wanted to celebrate the Tamil New Year day on Jan14th. This is the day for Tamilar day. They even promulgated the orders. But the opposition parties and right wing party did not want to obey the ruling party. They ask the people to celebrate the New Year as usual with traditional way. People as routine went to the temple and perform special poojas. Every county and every region has got their own New Year day. But January first is the common for every one. Receiving the blessings from the elders is almost common for every society. We splash the water on the hindu festival not on New Year’s Day. Every beginning is hope for some one.
Hi anne !First of all happy holiday and enjoy yourself .Thanks for infomations about Songkran because Yesterday i saw on TV people in thai playing with water in the streets but i didn't understand why.That is an other thing bloging is for .Bye
Hi Anne, The best side of a special day is to be free. I mean, to be off work and relax at home or have a good time with our family, friends or relatives. In Turkey, we have a lot of national and religious special days. I like special days:)
Dear Anne, When I read your blog, I get surprised that New Year of Thai collides with New Year of Nepal. Basically, Nepalese follow lunar calendar and according to this calendar, 13th April is New Year day. There is no big celebration as used in other countries but Nepalese are engaged in religious activities in that day and marked by parties, family gatherings, exchange of good wishes. Governmental offices are closed in that day. This is based on Bikram Era which is also used in some part of India also. We used to call “Sankranti” for the first day of every month and it sounds somewhat similar in Thai language. One thing I want to clear is that New Year of Bikram Era totally based on lunar calendar and it can fall in any date between the second and the third week of April.
Sawatdi Phimai Anne! Thank you for telling us about Thai New Year. Oh, this weekend was very nice. Yesterday I spent all day in São Paulo city. First, I went to the cinema with my elder sister(she´s my loyal companion). We watched Irina Palm, have you heard about this film Anne? It´s really nice. After that we walked through the Paulista Avenue while we´re having some ice cream. I stopped at my favourite bookstore in order to browse the shelves and find some interesting titles in English to read and of course to have also a nice cup of expresso :-). Oh my gosh! I love the smell of new books! How about you Anne? Good night, Ana Paula.
Hi, Anne and everyone. How are you? I hope that all of us always have a great time knowing each other and sharing experiences. In Malaysia there are more than one ethnicity. Therefore, We are so fortune to celebrate other festivals such as Indian, Chinese, and Malay festivals. Happy blogging :-)
haoppy new year all the best
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