Apr 19 / Devan

Songkran Festival 2010

The Songkran Festival is a celebration of the Thai New Year, taking place at the end of the dry season in Thailand (from 13 April). Songkran is derived from the Sanskrit word Sankranta, which translates to “change” or “moving”, thus identifying the Solar New Year. Traditionally, the Songkran Festival involved the bathing of Buddha images in water with the belief that there would be good luck and prosperity for the New Year. The water would then be caught and thrown on the shoulders of elders as part of a blessing for good luck and fortune. Today, the Songkran Festival is a time to have fun and celebrate with the throwing of water, where the Thai people will do things such as spray each other with water guns or throw buckets of water on friends and family. The festival is sometimes referred to as the “Water Festival” because of this.

Escapism on Saturday 17 was indeed inevitable, as I roamed the stalls reaping what would be my lunch and dinner for the next few days. I was at Nollamara with mum, sweltering under a rare day of Perth heat, purchasing items including pork and fish ball Thai laksa, beef and pork satay, garlic chicken wings, bags of sticky rice, som tum with crab claws, larb gai (minced chicken salad), bottles of nam prik, and cendol.

Food and drink stalls

Spooning that sweet sweet cendol

Chicken feet laksa

Satay

Bags of sticky rice

Fish cakes and deep fried chicken wings

For lunch, I devoured a beef noodle soup which contained a generous amount of fish ball slices, pork, rice noodles, and pork crackling. Being a sucker for pain, I threw in a spoon of dried chilli, vinegar chilli, and a pinch of sugar. Damn that dried chilli was hot. No form of serviette or napkin lay in existence, thus leaving me with one and only one option – to wipe my nose with the back of my hand.

Hand-written advertising

The best placement for a sign, ever…

Beef noodle soup

After lunch we wandered to the main park to participate in the festivities. The songs being played were of the Thai instrumental variety with big phat beats. This got everyone in the dancing mood as they did the “wavy arm” thing, and the whatchamacallitdoohickey on the spot bounce. Shortly after, a fire truck from the City of Stirling rocked up with the firemen using a hose to douse kids with water. The young ones were having a great time and I was envious that they were getting cool and I was not. At this point in time we got into the car – our provider of airconditioned comfort. Ahhhh…

Young ones having fun under the spray

City of Stirling Fire Truck water spray

Big red fire engine

The Songkran Festival was held by the Thai Australian Association of WA on Saturday 17 April from 10:00am – 2:00pm at the Dhammaloka Buddhist Temple in Nollamara.