The Songkran Celebration
The songkran celebration begins early on the morning of April 13, when the public offers food to Buddhist monks. A customary practice during the festival is for people to release birds and fish. Thais believe that they will gain merit through such acts of kindness.
Besides offering food to monks and releasing birds and fish, another essential part of songkran is the bathing of Buddha images with scented water. On Songkran day younger relatives and friends will also gather at the houses of their respected elders and pour scented water into the hands of the elders as a sign of respect and veneration. The real fun starts after the water-pouring, as the young people begin splashing water on one another.
The practice of building sand stupas at temples is another fascinating tradition. This practice originated in the Dhavaravati period ( 500-1000 A.D.) people bring in small amounts of sand to temples and build small stupas on the temple grounds. There are two reasons why people do this. Firstly, it is believed that each grain of sand represents atonement for a sin. Secondly, the sand will be piled up in the temple grounds later for use as a land fill or for mixing concrete when repairing the temple buildings. Therefore, it is interesting that something traditional has been turned into something functional as well.