Here a story wich I picked from the outlook section of Bangkok Post, Thailands leading english newspaper:

The Thai word songkran means "to move upwards" or "to be about to change" or "one day is changing to the next". Maha songkran is when one year reaches its end and another is about to begin, and is defined as "about to experience a great change".
Maha Songkran is the real name for the traditional Thai new year, although it tends to be abbreviated to Songkran.
Thais took the tradition of the lunar new year from the Brahmins, whose year begins on the first day of the waning moon during the fifth month in the lunar calendar. The date on which Songkran fell was determined in this way for many years, but when it became necessary to put it in the Gregorian (Western) calendar, a fixed date had to be agreed upon. The first time this was done, the lunar new year fell on April 13, and this date has been used ever since.
But April 13 rarely coincides with the first day of the waning moon. This year, for example, the lunar new year, calculated in the Brahmin way, would have begun on March 21.
The traditional Thai new year celebration has a lot to do with close relationships among family and friends. Traditionally, something all Thais must do to prepare for Songkran is give the house a thorough cleaning. Stupas (chedi) used to hold the bones of ancestors are cleaned and decorated with coloured paper flags. Things must be bought and fresh food and new clothes be made ready for the Buddhist ritual.
In line with tradition, on Lunar New Year's Day people dress in new clothes and take food offerings to the temple to make merit. A ceremony takes place around the temple's main Buddha image, which is taken outside so that worshippers can pour water over it and, in some places, the monks too. Then another offering of food is brought out for a ritual gesture of respect to the stupas containing the bones of one's ancestors.
After this it is customary to pay visits to senior relatives, taking along new clothes to present to them as gifts. Visitors sit together with their elders and bless them by pouring water over their hands while wishing them a long life. The elders return this blessing, wishing the visitors wealth and a long life as well as worthy children and grandchildren.
People go to see close friends at Songkran too. They may have met them earlier at the temple ritual, pouring water over their hands and shoulders, wishing them comfort and happiness to match the pleasant coolness of the water. Friends take turns offering these blessings to each other. This is the way Thais traditionally ushered in the new year.
Today, many of these customs are still in place. Food is still offered to the monks to make merit, and gestures of respect are still made to the chedi, the structure containing ancestors' remains. The arrangements for visits to elder relatives are sometimes different, however. These days large numbers of relatives _ often the entire family _ plan in advance to get together at the home of a family scion. They bless each other with water and a large meal is enjoyed.
In smaller families, children sometimes take their parents shopping, or out for a meal or on an excursion out of town _ more modern adaptations to the old customs.
But the other aspects of the lunar new year celebration have changed more radically. About 40 or 50 years ago, Thais started to think about the days after Songkran as a time for taking trips. Chiang Mai became the favourite destination, and many people travelled there by train or bus. People were drawn there by the city's rich artistic and cultural traditions and by the natural beauty of the area. Visitors participated in various religious activities, making merit and visiting temples. Some even slept there.
Travellers from Bangkok enjoyed building stupas out of sand when they visited the Ping River for fun and frolicking in the water. Years ago, the level of the river was so low that people could paddle in it, dipping bowls into the water to throw over each other.
As time passed, people in Bangkok came to like the idea of throwing water over each other at this time of year. Hurling water at anyone and everyone gradually became the tradition at Songkran. Now water can be thrown with impunity at strangers, with no need to apologise after dousing them, whether they retaliate or not.
At first, people stood in front of their houses and threw water at passers-by. Footpaths became a combat zone for water-throwing, and pick-up trucks loaded with barrels of water were seen all over Bangkok's streets, with people hurling water at pedestrians, bus passengers and motorcyclists.
But even this wasn't enough. It seemed plain water alone wouldn't do. It had to be ice-cold, and bags of near-frozen water were thrown from all directions. The more people you hit, the more fun it became.
Then came the plastic hoses and water pistols followed by high-powered devices _ home-made water cannons _ which allowed water to be shot over long distances with great accuracy.
But in this latest practice incorporated into traditional Thai lunar new year celebrations, getting wet still isn't enough. You have to leave your mark on people too. Starch is added to the water to turn victims white. No one fights back, no one complains. Songkran is a time when anything goes.
A good place to experience Songkran is on Khao San Road in Bangkok. Years ago this street was quiet on Songkran Day; the backpackers who throng it all year round used to go elsewhere. As time passed, foreigners got used to the idea of soaking each other with icy water during the hot season. This was especially true of the American GIs stationed here who took up the idea with a vengeance. There was something very pleasing about seeing visitors taking to this Thai tradition with such gusto.
At first, there was nothing ugly about the way Songkran was celebrated on Khao San Road. But now the area has become a kind of battlefield during this holiday, with Thai teenagers in the thick of the action.
Khao San Road has become synonymous with Songkran, a place everyone has to visit at least once during the festival, like people once used to go to Chiang Mai. Now, a number of other areas in the city have also become danger zones during Songkran, each with sois packed with fun-loving, water-soaked people. Most of them are in the Bang Krabue and Kiakkai neighbourhoods, along the Bangkok-Nonthaburi Road around Pracha Nukun, and on some stretches of Samsen Road.
Many youngsters venture out of their communities at this time. Teenagers form gangs, many of them get drunk, and take over nearby roads, stopping passing buses, taxis, samlors and motorcycles and covering the passengers with a paste made from rice flour and water. People continue to drive under the influence of alcohol, which the government said was the cause of the majority of the deaths and injuries recorded during Songkran last year.
And it's not just about alcohol. Many girls dress in skimpy "spaghetti" tops or T-shirts and shorts for the water-throwing ritual, outfits seen as appealing to young males who sometimes overstep the mark and touch girls in an indecent manner. This is the new Thai Songkran, where cultural traditions and Buddhist rituals seem to be making way for deviance and disorder fuelled by alcohol. So what's being done to control this?
The government on Tuesday said that checkpoints would be set up on roads to catch drunk drivers. It has banned people from throwing water at buses and motorists in a bid to lower the road-accident rate and has forbidden the sale of high-powered water-sprayers.
As part of a crackdown on bad behaviour and sexual harassment, the government has warned parents that they risk being jailed for three months or fined 30,000 baht if they allow their children to misbehave during next week's festival. It was noted that young males were "using dirty water and talcum powder as an excuse for sexual violation".
But these regulations have to be strictly enforced. If it has been specifically decreed that only pouring water in the traditional Songkran manner is legal, then engaging in everything else is therefore an offence. Will people report untoward incidents to the police? Will the police really be obliged to make arrests?
Disgruntled citizens who make complaints must be confident that the police will take these complaints seriously. If this happened it would set an example; it would show that the police are prepared to protect citizens' personal rights.
The authentic, traditional spirit of the Thai lunar new year can be maintained if deviant activity is curbed. Otherwise, this once-beautiful holiday could become a national day of undisciplined abuse and antagonism.

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