Dear Leyna Allen,

Since you have told me many stories about your holidays and traditions I will tell you about a very enjoyable holiday that we celebrate in Thailand. I choose to tell you about Songkran or as like you Americans call it “New Years”. During Songkran we eat all types of food but the two most traditional (and my personal favorite) is the Mango Sticky Rice and Pad Thai. The Mango Sticky Rice dish is made with rice that has been cooked with sweet coconut milk and is then served with freshly cut mangos. The Pad Thai dish is a classic stir-fried rice noodle that has eggs, tofu (optional), fish sauce, dried shrimp, red chilli peppers, lime wedges, and or palm sugar. Sometimes my family puts pork, beef , or crab in it to make it taste a certain way.

Next I will tell you about the things that we do during Songkran. Instead of celebrating Songkran on the 1st of January, like you Americans do, we celebrate Songkran on April 15th. We have a festival on Songkran and during this festival we throw water at each other! Sometimes in certain places we can take pictures in foam and win a contest! Another thing you can do here is build a castle and put it near our temples and a gift to the gods. Lastly, you can go to the different shops and buy a lot of food and eat.

The last thing I’m going to tell you is about why we do all the things we do here in Thailand. The reason why we splash water and/or foam is because we believe that it cleanses our body physically, spiritually, and mentally (also it’s really fun dumping buckets of water on your friends and family). We build castles as gifts for the gods because it will keep them happy and content with us as we go along our day and the rest of the year. You’re probably wondering why we go to different shops and eat food is because it’s extremely fun to do.

Well I hope to receive a letter from you soon. I hope you learned a lot about Songkran just like i learned about your New Years.

Sincerely Yours,

May Nan