Thai Singer & Dance Songkran Festival Perth Australia

Thai Singer & Dance Songkran Festival 2018 Perth Australia

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.

Traditional Thai dance

Ram wong, meaning to dance in a circle, is one of the most popular forms of Thai dance. It is a Thai folk dance, and as the name suggests, men and women come together in pairs and dance in a circle. Movements are slow and graceful, and this is one of the most social forms of dance out of the six.
Unlike the Kohn style of Thai dance, Lakhon performers are mostly women. Instead of having individual roles in a performance, the women work together and perform as a group. Many stories are told through these performances through acting, song, and of course, dance. The costumes and stage settings are usually much more lavish in lakhon than in some of the other forms of Thai dance. The lower half of the body does not move as much as the top, with graceful and lively hand movements throughout a performance.

Thai Singer & Dance Songkran Festival 2018 Perth Australia. – Event date: 14th of April 2018

The Songkran Festival

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.

Songkran

– derives from Sanskrit meaning shift or movement. It derives from the movement of the sun from one position to another in the zodiac. According to its literal meaning in Sanskrit, a Songkran occurs every month. However, the period that Thai people refer to as Songkran happens when the sun moves from Pisces to Aries in the zodiac. The correct name for this period should actually be Maha Songkran great Songkran because it coincides with the arrival of a New Year. The Songkran festival is, therefore, a celebration of the New Year in accordance with the solar calendar. The celebration covers a period of three days: 13 April is regarded as Maha Songkran, the day that the sun moves into Aries on the zodiac or the last day of the old year. The next day, 14 April is called Wan Nao, the transitional day between the old and the new years, and 15 April is called Wan Thaloeng Sok Thai: วันเถลิงศก to begin a new era or year, New Year’s day itself