The New Year is just about to start. Whether you’re someone that likes to ring the new year in with friends downtown or you’d rather enjoy a quiet night in with your significant other, you can’t go wrong enjoying a delicious Thai meal beforehand. Twist on Thai Cafe in Hopatcong is a fantastic place to enjoy dinner before heading out to enjoy your New Year’s plans and we sure do hope to see you.
While it may be time to ring in the new year here in the United States, the Thai new year is a bit different. In today’s blog post, our team wanted to share a little bit about this particular celebration in our culture. Let’s dive right in.
Songkran Festival
The Thai New Year’s celebration is known as the Songkran Festival — it’s one of the most important events that the Thai culture celebrates. The word “Songkran” literally means to pass or move into. Usually celebrated in mid-April, the Songkran Festival is a time where family and friends get together and pay gratitude to elders. This will often lead to spending some time visiting temples for prayer and offerings.
A Celebration That Goes for Days
While the typical New Year’s celebration in the United States will last for no more than a day, the Songkran Festival can last for anywhere between three to ten days — talk about a celebration! Aside from spending time connecting with friends and family, people will spend time in time enjoying the various forms of entertainment and activities that have been set up for the festival.
Rituals that Bring Good Fortune
The Songkran Festival is a time of moving into a new year, which is why people take this celebration as an opportunity to cleanse themselves of the year prior. One of the most precious rituals that display this movement is a bathing ritual. People will come and pour water on the senior Buddhist monks. This ritual is believed to bring good luck in the new year. Once the ritual is completed, the chief monk will complete a sermon and bless all that were in attendance of the ritual.
Cleansing of Bad Luck
Luck is something that we all hope to have in the new year. In order to avoid bringing any bad luck into the new year, most people will spend the last day of the year cleaning their house. This is only one of the many traditions that people will complete to avoid bad luck in the new year. There are also cleaning/bathing rituals that people complete that will not only cleanse oneself of bad luck but are also said to encourage lots of rain in the coming year.
Stop in to Twist on Thai Cafe This New Years
If you haven’t already made dinner plans for this New Year’s Eve, stop by Twist on Thai Cafe. We are always serving up flavorful dishes that are perfect for celebrating with friends and family. If you have a big party that you’re going to be eating with, give us a call so that we can accommodate your group.
