Posted on: Wednesday, March 20, 2002
Thai festival focuses on families
By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer
Hawai'i's Thai community will celebrate its native songkrah festival April 13 at Kapi'olani Park.
The all-day event features folk music and dancing, food booths, kickboxing (muay Thai) demonstrations and a Miss Songkrah pageant and is scheduled from 4 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Songkrah, meaning to move or change places, is celebrated as an occasion for family reunions in Thailand every April 13, said Manop Chansubin, a monk at Wat Buddha Jakramongkol Vararam, the Thai Buddhist Temple of Hawai'i in Pearl City.
"It is known also as Water Festival, as our people believe water wash away bad luck," Chansubin said. "For Thai people, it is our own new year celebration."
In Thailand, songkrah is a time when those working in cities such as Bangkok return home to their rural villages to be with family.
It involves early morning services where families go to the temple to chant, pay homage to ancestors and receive water blessings from monks. Birds and turtles are also released by families. The biggest festival is held in the northern Thailand province of Chiang Mui, Chansubin said.
"We believe bird is freedom and turtle is long life," the monk added. "In Hawai'i, we pour and splash (holy) water but no release birds and turtles." The traditional blessing of pouring scented water on hands will be performed at Kapi'olani Park.
Chansubin noted that Laotian and Cambodian communities on O'ahu annually join Thais at Kapi'olani Park for the songkrah celebration. According to Census 2000 statistics, there are 2,284 Thai or part-Thai residents in Hawai'i. The Laotian and Cambodian communities are equally small, numbering 2,437 and 330 people, respectively.
Most of the Thai and Laotian population is concentrated in Kalihi, Wai'anae, Palolo, Waialua and Kunia, said Chansubin. He estimated that 350 Thai families worship at the temple in Pearl City.
Songkrah is one of two Thai festivals celebrated in Hawai'i. The other, called loykrathong, which means banana leaf, is held in November.
