By Joey Aguilar/Staff Reporter

Dressed in colourful attire and wearing happy smiles, Thailand expatriates in Doha celebrated their New Year with food offering to the monk, cultural performances, and water festival yesterday at the Thai embassy in the West Bay area.

The early celebration in Qatar was organised because many expatriate workers will be going back to Thailand to attend the actual Songkran festival on April 13.

Thailand Ambassador Panyarak Poolthup told ‘Gulf Times’ that Thai New Year is more of a family occasion, paying respect to parents and grandparents. He said Thais working abroad, especially in the Far East, go back to their homeland to celebrate the annual event.

The celebration in Doha started with a prayer and sermon (in Thai language) by a Buddhist monk, Venerable Jayasaro. He is a British Buddhist monk living in Thailand for many years.

“People tend to be away from each other in the digital world. That’s not life of normal people, there should be a people-to-people contact, not by e-mail, not by Facebook, and not by twitter,” the monk was quoted as saying.

Poolthup said: “The Thai community always miss their homeland during festivities so this is one way of celebrating it.”

Apart from merrymaking, many Thais also do charity work both in Qatar and in Thailand. The embassy earlier held a cultural and food festival to help soldiers and other organisations.

In the afternoon, cultural performances of young children were held. During the water festival, guests and visitors were sprinkled with water as a sign of respect to elders.

Teachers, students and volunteers of the Thai Cultural and Language School, headed by Jintana Feeney, helped in organising the event. 

Nobpadon Penglong, head of the Thai community in Doha, said Songkran festival is more of a bonding, spending more time with each family member.

Working for more than 15 years in Qatar, Penglong has been travelling back to Thailand every year to see his wife and children. “We eat together with joy and live happy. It’s a tradition,” he said. Days after the celebration, he will go back to Qatar to work again.

Songkran is celebrated all over Thailand. People who don’t mind getting wet stay outdoors while others prefer to stay indoors.