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Chris King

Coming of the rains
Songkran - or the 'water splashing festival' - is Thailand's New Year.  
Thais used to set their New Year by the lunar calendar like the Chinese do. But today it has a fixed date - from April 12 to 15. It is a spring festival, like Lunar New Year. 
Unlike in rainy climates, spring in sunny Thailand means  the end of the long dry season. People celebrate by throwing water at each other in a countrywide party.
Just a splash
Songkran today is a rowdy event. People line the streets and hurl buckets of water at passing cars and motorcycles. Sometimes, the water is not very clean.   
Songkran was not always so rowdy. In the old days, people cleaned their houses before the New Year, just as the Chinese  do. 
On the big day, they went to the temple and paid their respects to  Buddha. They sprinkled water on him to mark the end of the dry season. Then they sprinkled some of the water from the Buddha's body on loved ones. This 'holy water' was thought to be lucky. 
Most Thai people still go to the temple during Songkran to pray for luck in the coming year and make donations.
And elsewhere
Thailand is not the only place to celebrate spring with water. During the Indian festival of Holi - or Festival of Colours - people welcome the New Year by sprinkling each other with coloured water.
Songkran is also celebrated in Thailand's neighbours, Laos and Cambodia. It is even celebrated in part of the mainland. 
In Xishuangbanna , which is on the Laos border, the Dai people have a water-sprinkling festival that starts a day before Songkran. 
It is so popular with mainland tourists that there are even theme parks where the Dai people perform the water-sprinkling every day.
now do this
 1 Songkran comes at the end of the ...
 a. hot season 
 b. dry season 
 c. wet season 
 2 In old times, Songkran was a festival when people made offerings of water to ...
 a. Buddha 
 b. their ancestors 
 c. the village head 
 3 Songkran is not celebrated in ...
 a. Laos 
 b. Cambodia 
 c. Vietnam
Answers
March 31
1. a, 2. c, 3. b



Songkran