If you know one thing about Songkran, the traditional Thai New Year festival celebrated each year from April 13 to 15, it’s likely the water fights. (They even made an appearance in season three of The White Lotus.) Marking the start of the solar calendar, it’s known for its anything-goes water festivities: Participants armed with water guns, buckets, and hoses splash each other in a symbolic cleansing of sins and washing away of misfortunes that allow a fresh start in the new year.
“The water fight is a real thing,” smiles Jenn Saesue, the New Jersey–born, Bangkok-raised cofounder of beloved downtown restaurant Fish Cheeks, known for seafood-forward, unapologetically spicy dishes that showcase Thai flavors and techniques rarely found in Manhattan before it opened in 2016. “People drive around with pickup trucks full of water, and you can dump it on anyone, even police, and they can’t get mad. It’s even welcome because it’s the hottest time of the year.”
Befitting the second largest Buddhist population in the world (after China), many also visit temples to make merit, a fundamental Buddhist concept to generate positive karma that can involve offering alms to monks, participating in traditional rituals, and pouring jasmine-scented water over Buddha statues to honor their spirituality. Respect for elders is likewise key to the celebration; pouring water over the hands of older family members is a gesture of reverence and a way to receive blessings for the upcoming year. Throughout the country, the festival is marked by colorful parades, traditional music and dance, family reunions, and a spirit of community and togetherness.
Amid preparations to open a Williamsburg outpost of Fish Cheeks on May 5, Saesue shared with Vogue her Songkran celebrations this year.
Photo: Sippakorn Ponpayong
Photo: Sippakorn Ponpayong
Celebrating Songkran now is similar to what we did growing up. We start at the temple in Elmhurst, Queens. Monks get up early, do their rounds in the neighborhood, and then return to the temple before noon. They depend on the community to feed them, so you do a food offering, and they do a prayer blessing. Most of the prayers are in Pali and Sanskrit, and you literally don’t know what you’re saying. But it’s about Buddhism, letting go, new beginnings, not holding on to things, bad karma, good karma, and making sure you’re a good person and not harming other people, just living a good life. During a portion of the chant, you pour water into a little bowl, and later you go to the biggest tree and pour that back into the earth, kind of like a circle-of-life thing.
Read the full article here
