12 April
Today I arrived at my friend Worawut's house outside of Bangkok for the holidays. His family was doing a spring cleaning of their pretty wooden house in preparation for the spring festival of Songkran. They put their hands together to greet me with a traditional gesture called the wai. Worawut translated their words for me.
13 April
The women cooked Thai food for the next day's ceremonies(仪式). That smelled wonderful! Under the bright sun, we men went to the river and brought lots of sand to the village war(寺庙). The wat was a beautiful Buddhist building where the monks (和尚) lived. We left the sand near the wat. Worawut said I'd soon find out why.
14 April
We all dressed up and went to the village wat. The monks waited with their bowls at a long table. We filled their bowls with rice and all kinds of delicious food. Everyone smiled and music played as the monks ate. After that, we attended the bathing ceremony. We poured water over stone Buddhas. Young people poured some sweet smelling water into the hands of older people to show respect for them. Outside, everyone used the sand we had brought to make sand pagodas (佛塔). We put flowers, flags, and stones on ours. It was beautiful!
15 April
Today was the last day of me festival, and Worawut told me to get ready for some water throwing. We had a great time. Everyone in the village was throwing water. On such a hot day, the water felt really good. I can't wait to come back next year!
