Songkran is celebrated annually in Thailand. It is deemed as the traditional New Year day celebration and the fest runs from the 13th to 15th day of April. These dates were originally set through astrological calculations like the Islam calendar but nor the dates are fixed.
This event takes place in summer mainly towards the end of the annual dry spell. The New Year celebrations have seen a couple of date alterations right from the 19th century and now they conform to the conventional calendar used by most parts of the world. So their New Year celebrations are held on the first day of the year.
The songkran festival is usually paced, not just with people but events and performances. Throwing of water has since been regarded as the selling point of the whole event. In this the Thai people run round the streets with water guns and drench each others as they whirl the day away. In the initial days of the event, the participants used to visit friends, neighbors, the elderly, the sick and monks.
Apart from throwing water, the participants also take food to and pray with the monks. Buddha images are also cleansed during this event because it is believed to bring good fortunes. Since it is a new year celebratory, people make resolutions and pray their God to help them attain their goals for the year.