Songkran in Thailand is a week of madness, I was fortunate to be in Pattaya for this years event.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand describe it as follows;

Songkran, is the ''Thai New Year''. Calculated by the lunar cycle, this year's date fell on April 13. Shortly after dawn, devout Buddhists gather at the neighborhood temples to offer food for the monks and prayers for the New Year. By mid-morning, though, the town degenerates into a battlefield as the good people of Songkhla abandon themselves to a mad free-for-all orgy of throwing, squirting splashing, heaving, hurling and dumping water on each other. Around streetcorner washtubs lurk little children, armed with water dippers, who gleefully ambush anyone foolhardy enough to venture past. Teenagers on motorcycles weave wildly through traffic, ready to pounce in hit-and-run squirtgun raids. Pickup trucks packed with nubile schoolgirls, fetchingly drenched, prowl about the streets in search of victims for a watery mugging.

Songkran festival is then the festival to celebrate Thai New Year's day. We will do good things such as offering food to th monks, pouring scented water over Buddha image, building sand pagodas, releasing caged birds and fish, paying respect to the elder and asking for their blessing and splashing water to other people. This is the way we express happiness and joyfulness. There are also games and other fun activities we do on these days.