Songkran started out as Buddhist ritual to welcome the new year with purification, and that is still the meaning of the holiday today. Monks and believers attend to the temples, sprinkling Buddha statues and altars with scented water, in a symbolic gesture of washing away the bad luck from the previous year and welcoming in good fortune, health, and happiness for the new year. The water was saved and sprinkled on loved ones as well. This is still done today.