Thailand’s Moral Promotion Center’s 7 Values for Safety During Songkarn

 

CHIANG RAI – As Songkran approaches (9th-15th April 2015), the Moral Promotion Center would like to propose seven values for the public, hoping to guarantee a level of personal safety during this festive but often fatal season.

Sin Suesuan, Director of the Moral Promotion Center said that during the Songkran holiday, the risk of accidents grows by three times the normal rate.

This is mainly caused by disputes, alcohol usage, unsafe driving, and sexual assault due to inappropriate attire. Major accidents and a large number of deaths occur every year, making this seven day period well known as “Seven Dangerous Days”.

The majority of the deaths and accidents happen to adults and young people, usually aged between 20-49 years old.

Hoping to make this year’s 7 Dangerous Days, accident free, the Moral Promotion Center, proposes seven values to the public:

1. Discipline – Follow the rules underlined by society, such as Traffic Laws, safe driving within the speed limit, avoid crosscutting others. When using public transportation we must stand in line.
2. Be patient – Avoid gambling, and tolerate anger from those who are drunk and others to avoid potential fights.
3. Kindness – Show kindness, help and support one another
4. Giving – Be sharing, be giving, and be helpful to others and the society, like offering seats to elders.
5. Responsibility – know one’s duties in society, to guarantee the safety of others. eg. Bus drivers, pilots.
6. Consciousness – know what one’s actions may lead to; not drinking while or before driving.
7. Caution – Be careful in everything that we do, don’t do anything that may harm or injure yourself or others.

The Moral Promotion Center, hopes that these seven values may help to safeguard the public’s safety during the Songkran Holiday, so Thais will be celebrating a safe and blissful new year.

 

 

Songkran marks the end of the dry season – April is Thailand’s hottest month – and the beginning of the annual rains in the fifth month of the Thai lunar year. Many Thais visit their local temple to pray and to wash their Buddha icons. Buddhist statues on house shrines are also cleaned. This cleansing ritual is to bring luck and prosperity for the coming year.

In northern Thailand, Buddhists bring small bags of sand to the temple, returning the dust they have carried away in the past year on their bare feet. This sand is then sculpted into small stupas and decorated with flags in honour of the Buddha.

As Songkran is also the longest public holiday in Thailand, it’s an opportunity for up-country people to return home from Bangkok, and the Thai capital is remarkably quiet during the holidays, its infamously chaotic traffic calmed for a few days.

Nowadays, the throwing of water is the festival’s highlight. In fact, for three days virtually the entire country turns into a celebratory war zone. Children with huge water guns roam the streets or sit in the back of their parents’ pick-up trucks, which are loaded with buckets of water that is dispensed on anyone who happens to be within reach.

White talc is also thrown in copious amounts and the city’s streets soon resemble the aftermath of a snow storm. The only down side to the exuberant festivities is the vast number of fatal traffic accidents caused by drunken drivers.

How to celebrate the Thai New Year

Foreign visitors to Thailand have but one option during Songkran – embrace, embrace, embrace. Tourists are special targets during the festivities and young Thais will make an extra effort to pour ice cold water down the back of your shirt if they see you pass by. Khao San Road, Bangkok’s backpacker ghetto, is the place to be for all-out street fights with thousands of Thais and foreigners armed with water guns and cans of beer, battling both the heat and each other.

What to wear for Songkran

As it’s hot, and clothes are likely to get ruined by sustained water and talc attacks, it’s advisable to wear as little as possible and to leave precious items of clothing in one’s luggage. Still, near-nudity is frowned upon and the Ministry of Culture appears to be scandalized each year by what it deems to be morally indecent incidents. One should certainly keep one’s camera fully clothed though – without waterproof housing, it’s likely to fall victim to the watery shenanigans.