BANGKOK, April 14 (Xinhua) -- A toned-down water festival came to the second day of celebration on Friday amid stricter regulations as the country is still in mourning period for the late king Bhumibol Adulyadej, who passed away in October 2016.
The Songkran festival kicked off on Thursday with muted celebrations. People started the festival by making merit at temples, offering alms to monks and pouring water on Buddha statutes brought out for prays and blessings on this traditional New Year before delighting in water splashing later in the day.
The three-day festival sees no entertainment activities on stages or shows of any kind in observance of the passing of the late king. Sexy clothes, sexy dancing and vehicles blasting music are also prohibited this year.
Songkran revellers are advised not to drink alcohol, as the country has seen 33 deaths and 420 injured from 409 road accidents since the first day of the holiday and drink-driving is responsible for the greatest number of accidents.
Partygoers are also warned not to use talcum powder and high-pressure water guns. It comes after a shocking poll revealed around half the females who attended the water festival complained of being sexually harassed and groped by drunken men who apply powders to others during the event in past years.
However, tourists and Thais keep unfazed in the annual carnival. Revelry is high and merrymakers wet at Khao San, Silom and CentralWord shopping center in Bangkok.
The throwing of water is the festival's highlight. In fact, for three days virtually the entire country turns into a celebratory war zone. Revelers with huge water guns roam the streets, are armed with buckets of water that is dispensed on anyone who happens to be within reach.
Songkran, which has been called the "world's biggest water fight", is also a time when Thais pay their respects to their elders by pouring water through their hands, a gesture meant to symbolize purification and the washing away of one's sins and bad luck ahead of the new year.
Yuthasak, governor of The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), expected that the country would welcome about 470,000 foreign tourists from April 13 to April 17, adding that Chinese tourists will continue to contribute the most.
