When Singapore steals thai Songkran
This year , Singapore has decided to organize its own Songkran festival. An idea that is not to everyone’s taste in Thailand…
It is true that for copying, Thailand can not really give lessons but when you copy one of its most traditional celebrations obviously it makes some people angry. The Songkran Festival in Singapore announced as the largest outside of Thailand will be held on April 12 and 13 in the field of Padang in front of City Hall in Singapore. In addition to the famous water fights there will be live music, an exhibition Thai boxing tournament, a Thai night market and a carnival.
This is a private organizer whocame with the idea of this same same but different Songkran (the religious dimension is completely absent from the festivities in Singapore). The Vice-Governor of Tourism Authority of Thailand ( TAT) is not worried about this competition, confident that visitors will prefer the true Thai Songkran which is longstanding tradition to an man-made event fabricated for business purposes.
Songkran is traditionally celebrated by Thailand it hosts the best known Songkran festival, but also by Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar as well as by some ethnic groups in Vietnam, China Sri Lanka and India. It marks the transition to a new year. Originally, poeple gently pourred water on the hands of family members and neighbors. That practice created the current big water fights in the street but still applies in its traditional form. Because yes, Songkran was primarily a religious and family thing and that the festival in Singapore will not show you!
