Southeast Asia Celebrates the New Year With Huge Water Fights

It's the neighborhood water fight your 10-year-old self could only dream of.

From Sunday to Tuesday, people across Southeast Asia participated in their respective country's water festivals to celebrate the New Year. In Thailand, it's called Songkran; in Myanmar, it's called Thingyan. But whatever you call it, the end result is always the same: water-soaked clothes and smiling faces.

The festival last three days, and aside from the water fights, each country's celebrations differ. Thingyan and Songkran, for instance, stem from Buddhist tradition. Despite the water fights being a way for locals and tourists to cool off, worshipping Buddha lies at the heart of the festivals. Songkran, Thingyan and some of the other festivals across Southeast Asia emphasize kindness, with locals performing good deeds for others (at least in between splashing bypassers in the face with water) in order to receive good karma for the new year.

Check out 10 photos, below, of the water festivals in Thailand and Myanmar:


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