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Published on April 2, 2008

Like every year, the Tourism Authority of Thailand hosts celebrations at various tourist destinations during the Songkran festival. Like every year, a strenuous campaign will be launched to reduce the number of traffic casualties during the long holiday.

Like every year, a large number of revellers is expected to turn up. And like every year, the Culture Ministry is embarking on a campaign to raise awareness of "being Thai".

It sounds good. Though the equivalent of Songkran is celebrated in many countries, the Thai celebration deserves to be counted as an authentic Thai tradition.

For years, we have neglected to pay a visit to the elderly, to pour water over them and ask for blessings for the Thai New Year. For years, we have forgotten the norm that people of all ages would bag sand and take it to temples in return for the sand that stuck to their feet on their way back home over the past year. With the sand, they hold a chedi-building contest on the temple grounds. In the afternoon, they water each other. The sand structures collapse and become part of the grounds.

Old people still remember the day when they had tailors make special clothes for the day, generally of Thai fabrics in dark colours.

Today? People don't care about how they will be dressed for the Thai New Year. They just pick anything from the wardrobe, preferably something for the heat. Girls will pick white blouses knowing that, once soaked, they'll turn into see-through blouses.

The Culture Ministry sees the value of tradition but knows that for years, its campaign to revive the old customs has yielded little success.

This year, the ministry is more ambitious, appointing the four singers from the teen band Girly Berry as presenters.

Joining the music industry six years ago, when they were fresh into their teens, the singers were notorious for their extremely sexy outfits. In fact, their album last year was entitled "See Through".

But this year, they are going to erase this image from memory and don cover-all Thai-style outfits rather than spaghetti-strap tops and short-shorts or miniskirts

that reveal a generous stretch of leg.

It suits them, after all, as the singers have turned 20 - an age considered ancient in the teenie-bopper entertainment industry.

Hopefully, they will encourage their fans to follow suit. It would be nice if, aside from the cover-all outfits, they volunteered to build a sand chedi. That would be quite a scene.

Achara Deboonme

achara_d@nationgroup.com

The Nation