Songkran, new and old (part 2, final)

This year, I notice, many teens are wearing full-length cotton pyjama pants and shirts. Songkran revellers like to wear Hawaii shirts, or other bright colours.

Pyjamas also tend to be brightly coloured, so maybe that's why they wear them. Another reason might be that they don't want their good clothes to get ruined, so they wear PJs instead.

Plastic gu*ns which kids use to squirt water at each other have shrunk in size. In previous years, kids carried wea*pons which looked like machine gu*ns. This year, most kids have small hand-held pist*ol, powered by water packs which they carry on their back.

This year, a family close to my condo has set up a pit stop rather than travelling around on a motorbike to throw water.

They run a small shop next to a railway station kiosk where I buy beer.

Four or five children under 10 stand in wait for people like me. When I walked past today, one child squirted water at me, before his sister told him off. 'The farang is not playing!' she said.

I bought my beer, and went straight home. No need to tempt fate.

The Ministry of Culture is running advertisements about Songkran on television. One shows foreign and Thai revellers swapping Songkran gear.

The foreigners give the Thais their plastic water gu*ns, and the Thais give the foreigners their small water conches, which under the Songkran tradition, Thais use to pour water over their elders' hands.

In return, elders give young ones a New Year's blessing, as the Songkran festival also ushers in the Thai New Year.

The ads suggest that foreigners are responsible for sullying a fine Thai tradition, by introducing plastic gu*ns to the Songkan festival.

Although some foreign tourists do come here during Songkran, specifically to join the water fights, I doubt they introduced the practice.

In any event, Thais embrace water fights wholeheartedly themselves. They don't need foreigners' help.

At work, on the night before Songkran, I watched as young Thai woman took a small watering can and asked if she could sprinkle water on the hands of her more senior colleagues.

She was about to finish work for the night, and wanted to bathe their hands as a sign of respect before taking off for the holiday.

These are people with whom she works every day, and are not much older than she is herself. My colleague looked embarrassed, but did it nonetheless. It took just a few seconds, and was sweet to watch.

Those on whose hands she sprinkled water, flicked the water back on to her in a friendly fashion.

I don't know how many Thais still bother with this tradition.

I chatted to the manager of my condo before the festival began. She was spending Songkran with her brothers and sisters in Rayong. They would visit their father, and take him out to make merit.

'We will sprinkle water on his hands, and he will say, ''Happy New Year!''

'We will take Dad out to give food to the monks in the morning. Old people need to make as much merit as they can before they die, but often cannot get out to do it themselves, so rely on their children's help.'

In a brief story on the first day of Songkran, the Manager newspaper visited an old person's home in Bangkok. The atmosphere was quiet, it said. Elderly residents were going about their day as usual.

If they were lucky, some would get a visit from family over the holiday - if they were not too busy throwing water at each other on the street instead.

However, most had not heard from their children in some time, and expected this weekend would be no different.