--- title: Songkran: Google Doodle Celebrates the Thai New Year description: Google made a splash on Friday with its latest Doodle celebrating Songkran, the Thai New Year water festival canonical: https://time.com/4737825/songkran-google-doodle-thailand-water/ author: Ryan Kilpatrick article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-13T04:41:02.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:42:45.713Z og:title: Google Doodle Celebrates Songkran Thailand's New Year og:description: Songkran is known worldwide for epic water fights that shut down major streets og:url: https://time.com/4737825/songkran-google-doodle-thailand-water/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3f5b59e3e2c963d2/6988c29d196cf4ed1603fa4d/songkran-2017-4884058671677440-4-2xa.gif?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: songkran-2017-4884058671677440.4-2xa og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Google Doodle Celebrates Songkran Thailand's New Year twitter:description: Songkran is known worldwide for epic water fights that shut down major streets twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3f5b59e3e2c963d2/6988c29d196cf4ed1603fa4d/songkran-2017-4884058671677440-4-2xa.gif?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Google Doodle Celebrates Songkran Thailand's New Year Water Festival by [Ryan Kilpatrick](https://time.com/author/ryan-kilpatrick/) ## Ryan Kilpatrick Apr 13, 2017 4:41 AM UTC  Google by [Ryan Kilpatrick](https://time.com/author/ryan-kilpatrick/) ## Ryan Kilpatrick Apr 13, 2017 4:41 AM UTC Google made a splash on Friday with its [latest Doodle](https://www.google.com/doodles/songkran-2017) celebrating Songkran, the Thai New Year festival traditionally marked with water-dousing events. Songkran is known worldwide for epic water fights that shut down major streets across the country and attracts young celebrants and visitors from around the world. Splashing others with water confers blessing and represents cleansing and a fresh start — and coming at the hottest time of the year, it’s also a welcome respite from the scorching tropical heat. The three-day-long holiday isn’t just fun and games. Thais also mark the occasion by visiting local Buddhist temples and making offering of food to monks. Worshippers pour water over Buddha statues to symbolize purification and the washing away of one’s sins and bad luck. The date is also is also marked by similar festivities in Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and parts of southwest China’s Yunnan province. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4737825/songkran-google-doodle-thailand-water/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4737825/songkran-google-doodle-thailand-water/"},"headline":"Google Doodle Celebrates Songkran Thailand's New Year Water Festival","datePublished":"2017-04-13T04:41:02.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:42:45.713Z","description":"Songkran is known worldwide for the epic water fights that shut down streets nationwide","url":"https://time.com/4737825/songkran-google-doodle-thailand-water/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Thailand","Google Doodle","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3f5b59e3e2c963d2/6988c29d196cf4ed1603fa4d/songkran-2017-4884058671677440-4-2xa.gif?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ryan Kilpatrick","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ryan-kilpatrick/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3f5b59e3e2c963d2/6988c29d196cf4ed1603fa4d/songkran-2017-4884058671677440-4-2xa.gif?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"songkran-2017-4884058671677440.4-2xa","caption":"","creditText":"Google","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4737825/songkran-google-doodle-thailand-water/","name":"Google Doodle Celebrates Songkran Thailand's New Year Water Festival"}}]}] ```