Songkran is a traditional festival celebrated in Thailand that marks the start of the Thai New Year.

It's also known as the Water Festival as it involves splashing water on one another as a symbolic gesture of cleansing and washing away the sins and bad luck of the previous year.

However, it has since evolved into something much more than a religious observance.

It has become the world's biggest water fight.

Learn more about Sankran, the Thai New Year Celebration,

on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. I will often toss a personal anecdote into episodes but for this episode I want to

start with one. In 2010 I was in Bangkok on the first day of Sankran.

I walked out of my hotel in the morning to walk over to a convenience store one block away.

I knew it was Sankran, but I had no idea what that really meant.

As I was walking down the street, a woman who I had never seen before in my life walked up

to me, pulled the collar of my shirt out, and then proceeded to dump a bucket of water down my

shirt and said in English, Happy New Year.

I found out in my first steps out the door just what Sancran was about. Getting water dumped down my shirt

was the first of many wet Sankran experiences I had over the next several days.

So what exactly is Sankran and what does it have to do with dumping water on strangers?

The Thai New Year celebration actually has ancient roots.

Mainland Southeast Asia has often been referred to as Indochina.

It's a term that isn't used as much anymore, but it reflects the fact that India and China have

heavily influenced the region.

However, all of the countries in the region weren't influenced by India and China equally.

Countries like Vietnam were more influenced by China, mainly due to geography.

Countries like Burma and Thailand were more influenced by India.

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