Thai New Year – สงกรานต์ (Songkran) and its meaning

Update on:
Thai New Year

สงกรานต์ (sǒŋkraan) Songkran is known as the Thai New Year. But what does this word actually mean? Let’s find out!

Songkran doesn’t exactly mean Thai New Year

The word สงกรานต์ (sǒŋkraan) Songkran is a borrowed word from Sanskrit. The original term is Sankranti (सङ्क्रान्ति), which mainly means transference. You can see other meanings below from a Sanskrit dictionary.

We borrowed this word and used it to refer to when the sun moves from one zodiac sign to another indicating the start of the new year.

In Thailand, we consider สงกรานต์ (sǒŋkraan) Songkran, which is from April 13th-15th, to be the beginning of the new year. It is because in the past, we followed an astrological calendar where Aries (March 21 – April 19) is the first sign.

On 24th December 1940, the Thai government announced the 1st of January as the official New Year’s Day because they wanted to follow International New Year’s Day.

Since then, we have called the 1st of January วันปีใหม่ (wan pii mày) which means New Year’s Day. And the 13th-15th of April or สงกรานต์ (sǒŋkraan) Songkran as วันปีใหม่ไทย (wan pii mày Thai) which means Thai New Year’s Day.

สงกรานต์ (sǒŋkraan) Songkran is not only celebrated in Thailand as a New Year, but also in Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka.

Thai New Year and Songkran in different dialects

I know that Thai people call Thai New Year and Songkran traditions differently depending on the region. But never tried to find out how they are pronounced until today.

Credit: https://traveling39.wordpress.com/

ภาคกลาง (phâak klaaŋ) – the Middle Region

Let’s start with ภาคกลาง (phâak klaaŋ), the middle part of Thailand. Not that this region is more important than the others, but because people speak the official language here.

The way people call the Thai New Year tradition is ประเพณีวันปีใหม่ (prapheenii wan pii mày) and Songkran tradition is ประเพณีสงกรานต์ (prapheenii sǒŋkraan). The term ประเพณี (prapheenii) means tradition.

ภาคเหนือ (phâak nɨ̌a) – the North Region

In the north, the Thai New Year tradition is called ปเวณีปีใหม่ or ปาเวณีปีใหม่ (pǎaweenii pǐi mày). It can be written in two different ways but pronounced the same. You can see that the word tradition is written and pronounced differently from the middle language.

Also, the tone of the word ปี (pii) which means year is in a rising tone, instead of a middle tone as in the official language.

People in the north call the 13th of April as วันสังกรานต์ล่อง (wan-sǎŋkhǎan-lɔ̂ŋ) which means the day that the old year pass by.

The written version and the pronunciation of วันสังกรานต์ล่อง (wan-sǎŋkhǎan-lɔ̂ŋ) are inconsistent according to the official language. You’ll notice if you can read the Thai script. Also, the word Songkran is pronounced as sǎŋkhǎan, which differs from the middle part.

The word ล่อง (lɔ̂ŋ) means to float down the stream. This word is usually used as a term sailing the boat in normal speaking which is ล่องเรือ (lɔ̂ŋ rɨa).

ภาคอีสาน (phâak ʔiisǎan) – the Northeast Region

There are three different ways Isan people call Songkran tradition including บุญสงกรานต์ (bun-sǒŋkraan) or บุญเดือนห้า (bun-dɨan-hâa) or สังขานต์ (sǎŋkhǎan).

The word บุญ (bun) means merit, so for บุญสงกรานต์ (bun-sǒŋkraan), it can be translated as the merit of Songkran. บุญเดือนห้า (bun-dɨan-hâa) means the merit of the 5th month.

สังขานต์ (sǎŋkhǎan) is the same pronunciation as the word Songkran in the north part. People here call the 13th of April as [add audio] มื้อสงกรานต์ล่อง (mɨ́ɨ-sǒŋkraan-lɔ̂ŋ) which gives the same meaning as in the northern term วันสังกรานต์ล่อง (wan-sǎŋkhǎan-lɔ̂ŋ).

The word มื้อ (mɨ́ɨ) in Isan dialect means day. But this same word means a meal in the middle language. So, if you say มื้อนี้ (mɨ́ɨ níi) in the middle language, it means this meal while in Isan it means today.

ภาคใต้ phâak tâay – the South Region

I like what people in the south call Thai New Year’s Day. It’s so simple. They call it วันว่าง (wan-wâaŋ) which means free day. Yes, because we are free from any work!

The word ว่าง (wâaŋ) is commonly used in many contexts like ว่างไหม (wâaŋ máy) – Are you free?, ห้องว่าง (hɔ̂ŋ wâaŋ) – available room, เวลาว่าง (weelaa wâaŋ) – free time, etc.

Even though different regions have different terms for Songkran and Thai New Year, the term สงกรานต์ (sǒŋkraan) is known as the official term to call it.

So, you don’t need to worry about learning all those different words from every region.

What do Thai people do during the Thai New Year holiday?

We have วันหยุด (wan-yùt) or holidays for 3 days from 13th – 15th April. Different regions have different celebrations and activities. But except for paying respect to adults and playing with water which occur in every region.

Pouring water on elders for blessings

Songkran tradition

Pouring water on elders for blessings tradition is called รดน้ำดำหัวผู้ใหญ่ (rót-náam-dam-hǔa phûu-yày). Let’s break this down.

รดน้ำดำหัว (rót-náam-dam-hǔa) is a term from the north where รดน้ำ (rót-náam) refers to washing body and ดำหัว (dam-hǔa) means to wash hair. The last part is ผู้ใหญ่ (phûu-yày) which means adults.

In the old days, northern people washed the bodies and hair of their respected elders like their parents or grandparents. This tradition is meant to show their respect and ask the adults for forgiveness for things they have done wrong in the past.

Later, this tradition spread through all the regions and became an important part of the Thai New Year tradition.

But this tradition has slightly changed from washing the body and hair of the respected adults to just pouring the water on their hands. Some people also wash their feet.

Play water or Splash water

Songkran

It is also known as the water festival in English. For Thai people, we call it เล่นน้ำ (lên náam) which means to play water or สาดน้ำ (sàat náam) which means splash water.

People go out and splash water on each other, whether on people you know or strangers during the Songkran festival. April is the hottest month, so splashing water on each other helps reduce the heat.

Some people also believe that pouring water on each other washed away all the bad things in the past year.

In the past, people used buckets to splash water but nowadays there are many different gears to pour water such as ปืนฉีดน้ำ (pɨɨn chìit náam) water guns, ขวดน้ำ (khùat náam) bottles of water, ขัน (khǎn) or ขันน้ำ (khǎn náam) buckets, and สายยาง (sǎay yaaŋ) hoses.

Spend time with family

People who prefer not to รดน้ำดำหัวผู้ใหญ่ (rót-náam-dam-hǔa phûu-yày) or เล่นน้ำ (lên-náam) usually ใช้เวลากับครอบครัว (cháy weelaa kàp khrɔ̂ɔpkhrua) or spend time with family. Like myself, I took my parents out to have a nice meal together.

Songkran would not be complete without the Songkran’s songs

During Songkran, everyone in Thailand will hear these two famous songs played everywhere we go. We hear it on TV, in the malls, at the restaurants, etc. They are now considered Songkran songs.

These two songs are produced by the same band called สุนทราภรณ์ (sǔntharaa-phɔɔn) or written in English as Suntaraporn. The songs were written in 1961 and have been played until today.

The first song is called รำวงวันสงกรานต์ (ram-woŋ wan-sǒŋkraan) and its lyrics start with วันนี้ เป็นวันสงกรานต์… (wan-níi pen wan sǒŋkraan…) – Today, is a Songkran day… You can listen to this song and see if you have heard it before.

The second song is called รำวงเริงสงกรานต์ (ram-woŋ rəəŋ sǒŋkraan) and its lyrics start with ฟ้าใหม่ แล้วละนะน้อง…​(fáa mày lǽæw lá ná nɔ́ɔŋ…) which literally mean New sky now younger people... However, it actually means Here come the new year, people...

I personally like รำวงเริงสงกรานต์ (ram-woŋ rəəŋ sǒŋkraan) more than the first song. It sounds more fun to me. This song has the English version as well. You can see the English version of this song in the video. It’s in the second half of the video. Which one do you like better?