Grand Songkran festival celebration in Penang

GEORGE TOWN: The Songkran festival – Thai New Year – was celebrated grandly at the two Siamese Temples in Lorong Burma here today with hundreds of revellers partaking of the festivities.

Armed with buckets of water and fistsful of flour, revellers doused and floured each other in a cacophony of "Sawatdee pi mai" (Happy New Year) and laughter.

The festivities at the Wat Chaiya Mangalaram Thai Buddhist Temple and Dhammikarama Burmese Buddhist temple here not only had Thais partaking of the festivities and fun, but had many locals joining in too.

The splashing and pouring of water on each other during the festival is part of the cleansing ritual to welcome the new year.

It is also a hope for blessings and good wishes whereby the things of old are washed away and bad luck warded off.