Songkran 2026 - the most unforgettable one

Songkran, Thailand's new year, just ended a week ago. I can't help but feel that my 2026 will forever be defined my dad's sudden passing right before Chinese New Year in February, and our first Qingming for him right before Songkran in April.

It was just a blink of an eye ago, when I was pushing him in a wheelchair in Yunnan in April 2025, admiring the snow mountains, enjoying wild mushroom hotpot together, and him convincing me to sing in the KTV at ClubMed when I wasn’t really in the mood to sing in front of a big group of elders.

Enjoying his best life in Yunnan.

Even closer in memory, late August 2025, he celebrated his 74th - his best birthday ever, over a huge steamed Black Emperor Fish (he specially asked me to arrange as he had never eaten one before) in the presence of his closest family and friends.

I held his hand tightly as he went through his first ever dialysis session after a fall at home in October 2025.

When I welcomed 2026 with him, he was already recovering rapidly after the positive effects of dialysis, and was quickly returning to his usual social activities. He had clear instructions about Chinese New Year 2026, which resulted in me helping him book a table for our family's Réunion dinner, which he missed by a week.

He was the one who made sure everyone was present without fail every CNY, a determination only a global pandemic managed to stop. It was sometimes painful to arrange, but on hindsight, it was his way of showing his brand of tough love, ensuring the family remained close. He then reminded us of his gentle, tender love when we met, in actions reserved solely for his grandchildren.

This year, he made sure all of us had somewhere to celebrate anyway, with or without him, not only for CNY Eve, but on the first day of CNY as well.

This is my father.

He wasn’t perfect, but he showed us it was possible to love on our own terms.

He showed us it was possible to live on our own terms

He showed us, it was also possible to leave on our own terms.

This is life.

The reminder to love while you can comes in the cruelest of ways sometimes.

I miss you Dad.

A Songkran in Singapore without water: Is there any point?

The word "Songkran" has recently stirred up quite a bit of controversy. Though I haven't been following developments very closely, I feel that my position makes it appropriate to give my view on this matter.

Firstly, what is Songkran? From my shallow understanding, it's considered the new year (just like what Lunar New Year means to us) for people in Thailand, Mynamar, Cambodia, Laos and some minority tribes in China. Traditionally, during this festival, people visit temples and cleanse Buddha images with water in order to bring good luck for the new year. This gradually transformed into a crazy festival with everyone hurling water at everyone else to celebrate the new year. Tourists from every corner of the globe flock to different parts of Thailand during this event to experience it. In Mandarin, Songkran is called "泼水节", which translates literally as "Splashing Water Festival".  Suffice to say, no matter whether you are cleansing your Buddha images or throwing water at everyone you see, the spirit of Songkran revolves around 1 element, yes, you guessed it, water.

This controversy first caught my eye when I read an article which talked about some officials in Thailand's Culture Ministry threatening to sue Singapore over the organisation of their very own festival. My first thought was, "Why the big deal? Even though it might purely be a marketing event, at least it helps to showcase Thai culture, especially the Songkran culture to more people, surely that can't be a bad thing."

Besides, if anyone wants to REALLY experience what Songkran is really about, they will DEFINITELY choose to come to Thailand, no matter what Singapore can offer, so it's not really a threat to tourism as well. A couple of nights ago, I mentioned to my wife that it would be almost impossible for Singapore to close a couple streets to allow "water-fights" to take place for 2 whole days. Before I knew it, the bombshell was announced, Singapore's Songkran is to take place, dry.

This morning, I finally visited Singapore Songkran's official website. To my astonishment, this was the very first picture that greeted me.

Is this going to happen? NO

I also found out that it is going to involve a lot of Thai food, Thai products, Muay Thai and a plethora of gigs involving a few entertainers from Thailand.

If you ask me, attending a Songkran event without water is like going to Singaporean chicken rice stall to order chicken rice, and end up getting char kway teow instead. No matter how Singaporean the char kway teow tastes, I want my bloody chicken rice, complete with chicken, rice and chilli sauce, not lacking in ANY element.

If I can give my 2 cents worth to the organising committee, I feel that all backdrops and information regarding water pistol fights on the website need to be removed immediately in case more paying attendees (as not all events are free) are misled, and that the name of the festival needs to be carefully reconsidered, at least for future versions of the same event.

No water, no Songkran. Period.