Just try to imagine a simpler basis for a party than chucking buckets of water at people’s heads. That is the essence of Songkran, the giant water fight that embodies Thailand’s national ethos: sanuk (fun).
Along with Songkran, this post takes a sideways glance at several other weird-and-wonderful Asian festivals. Irrespective of religious overtones, many have a touch of anarchy about them. They serve up pure primal fun that makes the likes of Christmas and Easter look solemn and staid.
1. Songkran
If Songkran ever got off the ground in Australia, the US or UK, you can guarantee that health-and-safety clipboard drones would step in and ban it. Songkran is mad. It boils down to party-minded people in Thailand and Lao PDR blasting water at each other’s faces. Some participants use buckets, others water pistols, still others, high-powered pump-action water rifles. The catch is that rather a lot of motorbike riders get drenched and take a tumble. But that’s the spirit of Songkran. Anything goes at the traditional New Year's Day bash that technically lasts from 13 to 15 April. Anarchy.
2. Holi
Holi is a spring religious festival celebrated by Hindus and Sikhs. Holi unravels in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, plus assorted other countries with a heavy Indian influence, which is plenty of places – the likes of Guyana, South Africa, and the UK. Celebrants treat Holi as an excuse to hurl colored dye at each other. Call it ‘Technicolor Songkran’ or, as it is widely known, the Festival of Colors. The ritualistic rainbow splurge gets boisterous. ‘Women, especially, enjoy the freedom of relaxed rules and sometimes join in the merriment rather aggressively. There is also much vulgar behavior connected with phallic themes,’ one blogger remarks, adding that pollution and obscenity are briefly allowed -– standard social and caste constraints vanish. Again, anarchy.
3. Golden Week
The inspiringly named Golden Week is a top fixture in the Japanese festival calendar, comprising an entire week of national holiday. Some companies shut down completely and give their employees time off and for many Japanese workers, it's the year’s longest holiday. On May 5, as part of the festival, people observe tango-no-sekku, a day to pray for healthy growth of boys. Families of boys festoon the outside of their houses with lucky carp streamers (koinobori). Families also display samurai dolls called gogatsu ningyo (May dolls), which presumably symbolize something similar, only with manly gung-ho overtones.
4. Ati-Atihan Fiesta Parade
This Filipino Mardi Gras unfolds in Kalibo, Aklan province in the Philippines on the third Sunday of January. The Ati-Atihan Fiesta is the Philippines' wildest festival, which is saying something in a country not known for stuffy restraint. Technically, Ati-Atihan honors the Santo Nino (Holy Child), whose effigy is paraded. But the whole shebang is a bit of a riot. No formal procession route comes into play. Mimicking the dark-skinned Ati tribe, neighborhood ‘tribes’ paint their bodies black, wear jazzy costumes, and dance to the throb of deafening drums. The dancers’ energy stems fromlechon (roast pig) and oodles of booze.
5. Ganesh festival
All over India, the elephant-headed Hindu god, Ganesh, gets the kind of reverence lavished on a Bollywood idol. No wonder: Ganesh is the god of success. And who does not want to be more successful in some way – better-looking, richer, fitter? Ganesh festival celebrants make life-like clay models of Ganesh months before the elephant god’s big day in late August or September. A model may be as short as a pepper pot or gigantic. Come the festival, Ganesh groupies put the idols on raised platforms in their homes or in ornate outdoor tents for people to view and pay tribute. The priest, typically dressed in red silk dhoti and shawl, breathes life into the idol amid a chorus of ceremonial humming. Fun! The jolly cult of the flappy-eared god extends across Asia.
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