Songkran celebrations start throughout Thailand

BANGKOK, April 12 (TNA) - Celebrations for this year's traditional Thai New Year or Songkran Festival have started in Bangkok and other provinces nationwide. Bangkok Governor M.R. Sukhumbhand Paribatra presided over a ceremony Thursday to launch a procession of Phra Buddha Sihing Buddha image from the National Museum to the City Hall, passing through several locations in the Thai capital, to allow people to worship and traditionally bathe the Buddha image on the auspicious of the Songkran Festival, which officially falls from April 12-15, when security measures are also intensified to ensure public safety. In northern Thailand, people in Chiang Rai province traditionally bathed and wrapped their revered pagoda named Jom Kitti, marking the annual Songkran Festival, and in Lamphun province, there was a procession of sacred Buddha images from several temples on Lamphun-Chiang Mai Road for traditional bathing. In the Thai Northeast, authorities of the Tambon Chiang Khrua municipality in Sakon Nakhon province organized sports activities and a New Year greeting ceremony for local senior citizens, aimed at promoting their good health and preserving local cultures. In southern Thailand, Malaysian tourists and Thai workers are arriving in Narathiwat province to celebrate the Songkran Festival amid strict security measures; while in nearby Pattani province, there is a water tunnel on a 100-meter-long section of Makrud road as a highlight of the annual Songkran festivity. (TNA)