Many countries in the world must have celebrated the New Year already, but it is not yet to be celebrated for Thai people. Songkran is a Thai traditional New Year; Songkan is a Thai word which means "move" or "change place" as it is the day when the sun changes its position in the zodiac. It is also called "Maha Songkran." Lastly, Songkran is from April 13th - 15th, annually. Each day have differently name and meaning. For example, April 13th called Songkranlong day, means the old body, mind and spirit of the old years are leaving. April 14th, called Wan Nao, and April 15th called Wan Paya Wan, means a first important day of the New Year. .
Traditionally in the morning of the first Songkran days, family members suppose to offer food to monks to bring luck to the family, and they ought to clean their houses as to get rid of all the bad things that has happened starting a good new year. Following in time, young and old dress in new clothing and visit temple, usually before go to the temple family members go get their grandparents to come with and give them prostrate at their feet to show the respect. It is very common to be respectful to the older people. At the temple Buddha images are performed for everybody to bath by pouring incense water into the Buddha images, this time you can think of something nice that you want for New Year; such as, healthy family, lucky year, or it could be anything you expect in this year. .
In some way, Songkran is similarly with Christian holiday of Christmas; maybe because Christmas is a long holidays, family members get together, big meals, and people are going to church. The institution of releasing fish is very good activity because we help the fish from small water recourse; in fact, the water gets very dry in summer, fish will die if there is no more water for them, so people choose to bring them into the river to release them.
