THE Thai festival calendar begins this week with the New Year soaking of Songkran, a nationwide water fight with roots in traditional Buddhist cleansing ceremonies. In recent years, the celebration has become more like St. Patrick's Day with water guns as Thai and farang (foreign) tourists guzzle alcohol and hose one another down in pursuit of what locals proudly call sanuk, or fun.

 

Songkran, the New Year festival, features friendly soaking with water.

But if you can't make it for Songkran, there are other options. The year ahead, 2550 on the Thai calendar, is a candy store of festivals, colorful parades and celebrations that have, for the most part, stayed close to their roots, offering you the opportunity to steep yourself not just in Singha beer, but in local culture and history as well. Expressing core aspects of Thai-ness like Buddhism, animism and agriculture, these festivals and national holidays will expand your mind and up your sum total of sanuk.

 

(To read more, go to...)

 

http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/04/08/travel/08journeys.html?

It seems that the NY Times man has found the Thai site on Festivals.

 

http://www.thailandgrandfestival.com/index.asp