Welcome Speech Songkran Festival 2018 Perth Australia

Welcome speech Songkran festival Perth Australia 2018 Forrest place

– amazing celebration and great opening speech from honorary consul Reuben Kooperman from Perth Royal Thai Consulate. Songkran is Thailand most famous festival. Welcome to country lead by Janine Marie Freeman MLA of Mirrabooka. Saowarak Srisukkho organizer of the event. Songkran is An important event on the Buddhist calendar, this water festival marks the beginning of the traditional Thai New Year.
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.

Welcome Speech 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.
For Thai people, it’s a celebration bringing in the new year, and although traditionally the date changed depending on astrological calculations, nowadays it’s always celebrated on April 13 although the Songkran holiday is from April 13 to 15.
The gentle splashing of water is a Thai New Year ritual, the water symbolising cleansing and renewal. Traditionally, scented water is sprinkled on Buddha images and younger people sprinkle water on their elders as a sign of respect.