The Southeast Asian Students Association and Thai Student Association will host Songkran, a water festival that celebrates the new year. Students can eat Thai food and shower the Buddha.
Students interested in Southeast Asian culture can celebrate the new year by showering the Buddha with flowers during a water festival.
The Southeast Asian Students Association and Thai Student Association will hold a Songkran New Year Festival on Friday in Baker Multicultural Room, which will highlight different ways Southeast Asian countries celebrate the new year.
Songkran, a water festival that celebrates the new year, is celebrated in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. The Southeast Asian Students Association and Thai Student Association will have activities at the event pertaining to Southeast Asian culture such as showering the Buddha to get good luck for the year, dancing and traditional Southeast Asian games.
Splashing water on each other is a common tradition during Songkran and is a way to clean off the bad luck, Raymond Teng, the president of Southeast Asian Students Association, said. Southeast Asia is dependent on agriculture, so the water festival is a way of praying for more water, he said.
During Songkran, people also show their respect to elders, Teng, a second-year graduate student studying international studies, said. Money and new clothes are often given to elders. Younger participants in Songkran show their gratitude by giving them gifts and showering them with flowers.
Songkran Festival will also include traditional Thai dancing called Ramwong, in which people dance in a circle around a table of food.
Wichanon Sae-Jie, the president of Thai Student Association and a first-year Ph.D. student studying math, said Thai Paradise, 102 W. Union St., will cater the event and will serve authentic Thai dishes such as som tom (papaya salad) and tod mun gai (Thai chicken cakes).
“Catching the little chicken” is a traditional game from Southeast Asia that will be played at the event, Teng said. In the game, one person is the eagle, another is the chicken and everyone has to protect the chicken from the eagle.
“Our events are pretty fun, I think, because they’re structured yet they’re pretty informal,” Halie Cousineau, the vice president of Southeast Asian Student Association, said. “We try to make it interesting for those who are Southeast Asians and also for those who are not Southeast Asians.”
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Southeast Asian Student Association and Thai Student Association will also show a video explaining how each Southeast Asian country celebrates the holiday.
“I think it’s enlightening to understand cultures, especially in Southeast Asia, and their value placement,” Cousineau said. “This is kind of a new year where you can wish for good luck but also give respect to elders. I think it’s dramatically important to understand other traditions and festivals.”
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