Buddha Blessing Ceremony Songkran Festival Perth Australia

Buddha Blessing Ceremony Songkran Festival Perth Australia 2018 Forest place

An important religious ritual on Songkran is Bathing the Buddha, in which devout Buddhists pour fragrant water over Buddha statues both at the temple and at home. More religious Thais would engage themselves in Buddhist ceremonies and merit-making activities throughout the holidays. Mornings begin with merit-making. Visiting local temples and offering food to the Buddhist monks.
Songkran is a religious festival with two aspects that are particularly important: the family, that has first priority, and the century-old ceremonies taking place in the temples. During the Songkran festivities, young people pay tribute to the older ones, parents as well as grandparents.

Songkran Thai new year celebration

means the shift of the sun from one side of the zodiac to the other. The holiday is celebrated when the sun moves from Pisces to Aries, beginning a new astrological year. The origins of Thai New Year combine Buddhist beliefs, ancient astrology, and the solar calendar. Songkran is also known as the Water Festival. New Year in Thailand is greeted with a splash of scented water to wish someone a happy new year. It is believed that water help to cleanse and to wash away unhappiness from the previous year.

Buddha Blessing Ceremony Songkran Festival 2018 Perth Australia. – Event date: 14th of April 2018

The Songkran Festival

Songkran means the shift of the sun from one side of the zodiac to the other. The holiday is celebrated when the sun moves from Pisces to Aries, beginning a new astrological year. The origins of Thai New Year combine Buddhist beliefs, ancient astrology, and the solar calendar. Songkran is also known as the Water Festival. New Year in Thailand is greeted with a splash of scented water to wish someone a happy new year. It is believed that water help to cleanse and to wash away unhappiness from the previous year.
Songkran is a period when the Thai people cleanse and pour water mixed with Thai fragrance on Buddha images. The festival also showcases a bathing ritual where the people pour water on the senior Buddhist monks. This process is believed to bring good luck to them. After that, the chief monk will give a sermon and bless those who attend this bathing ritual.

The Songkran Festival is a period when Thai people splash water on themselves, which they believe will cause plenty of rainfall in the coming year. Water is used to cleanse themselves of those bad things and also a symbol of fertility.
In some areas in Thailand, Buddha images are paraded from one street to the other, allowing Thai people to shower them with water. The young people pay gratitude and also show a sign of respect to elders in a sacred ritual, which involves pouring down scented water on their hands and also giving them new clothes. This water festival in Thailand involves merrymaking, presenting offerings to monks, releasing birds and fishes into the river, paying respect to elders, building sand pagodas, listening to sermons and, more importantly, splashing of water. This is believed to bring longevity, good health and prosperity.

The Songkran festival commemorates the start of the traditional Thai New Year. Besides the water splashing, celebrations and family reunions, many Thai people perform rituals that show respect for and family reunions, many Thai people perform rituals that show respect for and seek blessings from their ancestors, elders and Buddha images.