Parade of Buddhas 1

This past weekend I went to Chiang Mai for SongKran, the Buddhist New Years. In Thailand the way they celebrate SongKran is with a national water fight and Chiang Mai is the most popular city for this fight. They do this because SongKran takes place in April the hottest month in Thailand. The streets were filled with people throwing water on each other with buckets where they pulled water from the canals or using water guns. Trucks were packing the roads with people riding on the back with big barrels of ice water throwing it at people. Needless to say, I was wet all weekend. You couldnt leave your house without getting completly soaked. This is usually just a one day holiday, but in Chiang Mai it lasts all week! Unfortunatly my camera died this weekend, so I only got pictures of the opening parade...the parade of Buddhas. This is where all of the Buddha statues from every temple in the province of Chiang Mai are taken and put on floats for the parade and people throw perfumed flower water on them. It was really beautiful and amazing!


In Thai this water is called Nahm Ope. This is water with flowers and perfumes in it. This is the water they were throwing onto the buddha statues.











People on the bridge in Chiang Mai playing water. Elephant heads are on poles spraying everyone with water.












This monk is doing what is called prohm nahm mohn. This is where he sprays people with holy water for good luck and blessings.