Songkran

Fun fact: I am currently writing to you from the future. You likely already know that Thailand is about 11 hours ahead of the East Coast (which is where most of you are). If you are reading this in the morning then the day you are about to experience is already behind me. However, one thing you may not know is that in Thailand, the year is 2562, which means that I am actually, in a way, writing to you from 543 years in the future. (Because that’s how time works.)

The future is great. There are lots of mangos.

The Thai new year is celebrated April 13th through 15th. Which, if you’re keeping up with my math here, is right now! (Or at least right now when I started writing this a little over a week ago, whoops) The new year celebration is called Songkran, and it’s celebrated in one of the coolest ways I can think of to celebrate a holiday.

Get this: The entire country goes out with buckets and hoses and water guns and just has a huge water fight in the streets.

Naturally my teammates and I went out to catch some of the action. We were armed with makeshift water guns and even a couple actual water guns borrowed from squadmates. If you ever need a water gun in a pinch, a large water bottle with a hole poked in the lid is both free, and surprisingly effective.

Before we even got to the main area where everything was happening, we were drenched.

We navigated the packed streets with our water bottles and squirt guns, engaging in lots of little water skirmishes with complete strangers.

As we headed into the thick of things, we eventually got to a place where we were shoulder to shoulder with drenched Thai locals and tourists alike.

There was loud music playing, and people were laughing, shouting, and dancing. Streams of water were being shot over the crowd, and people were even throwing buckets of water out of full blow up pools. The thing to really watch out for was the ice cold water that the street vendors would sometimes splash at you out of the coolers they were keeping drinks in (And that some people filled their squirt guns and buckets with).

As we walked (and danced) along, continuing to get more soaked, people also put some kind of white paint on our faces. It was a clay thing and for a long time I tried to avoid this part of the festivities (using evasive maneuvers and liquid ammunition) but eventually I just embraced it, and I found out later it that it’s good for your skin and actually used to be used medicinally. I will say though that it is very weird (but also kind of sweet?) to have a bunch of strangers touching your face so that they can smear white clay on it.

One thing that really struck me was the context of this festival within the fact that this is one of the most polite cultures in the world. The people here are so kind and gentle. It’s actually culturally inappropriate to raise your voice or appear to be upset in any way.

From what I saw, this giant, nationwide water fight takes place without a hint of aggression. From where I was standing, all I could see was just pure joy and a lot of people having fun. Even in the midst of this huge water battle I could see the kindness and gentleness of the Thai culture. One man even bowed to me before he smeared clay on my face.

One of the biggest ways I felt this kindness was simply in the fact that they welcomed us in so readily to their new year celebration. We are foreigners coming in and joining their national celebration. I could see them easily looking on that fact with a mild annoyance or even resentment, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. I felt so welcome in their festivities and I shared many moments of genuine joy and laughter with the locals throughout the night.

The most memorable of these interactions was near the end of the evening. The official festivities had ended but there was still lots of celebrating and water fighting going on in the surrounding streets.   

We weren’t quite feeling ready to go home so we continued to roam the sidewalks. We came to a place where we had to cross an alley and we could see the family who was waiting for us with buckets. There was no escape. Heavy traffic to our right, a brick wall to our left, nothing to do but go forward, armed with the water gun equivalent of taking a knife to a gunfight.

A few of our teammates had already crossed, possibly without seeing what was waiting for them. This meant the rest of us had the benefit of seeing the full soaking that awaited us as well. We had been walking confidently down the sidewalk but were now standing hesitantly, weighing our options. A man with a bucket caught my eye and gave me the biggest smile. I grinned back with a smile that I hope conveyed my understanding of the inevitable.

I decided to just go for it and without even attempting to defend myself walked calmly forward. The man stretched out his arms to welcome me, and I did the same (mine more a motion of surrender). Without actually touching me he reached around my head and poured the entire bucket of water down my back.  

I had prepared myself for the possibility that this would be a bucket full of the brutally cold ice water you were often unpleasantly surprised by, but it wasn’t. As I crossed to the other side of the alley I just laughed. I felt so welcome and so honored that these locals would invite me in to celebrate their holiday like I was one of them.

We continued on down the road, dripping wet and grinning from ear to ear as the entire city danced and laughed and shot super soakers at each other.

The next morning I was with some of my squad mates for our daily prayer meeting. These meetings can look like worship, intercession, even just processing and checking in on one another. This particular morning we were worshiping and singing praise to our heavenly Father. As I sang and meditated on God’s love this picture came back into my mind- the picture of this man stretching out his arms to welcome me.

Tears came to my eyes as I meditated on the Lord welcoming us into his kingdom. In the Old Testament the Jews were his chosen people. Everyone else was an outsider. As someone without Jewish heritage, that includes me.

But then there was Christ. “For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.”-Galatians 3:26-29

The Lord welcomes us into his kingdom with open arms. We are no longer outsiders. Through Christ we are God’s beloved children, and we have a seat at his table. We are invited to the celebration and we can rejoice like one big family. 

Just picture everyone in all of history who has faith in Christ eating and rejoicing together. It’s something I love to think about and I eagerly await this huge celebration at the Lord’s table. I desperately hope that I will see you there. 

Just watch out for Joan of arc a couple seats down. It looks like she might have a super soaker.

Much Love,

Hattie