Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Revelers use water guns as they participate in a water fight

 during Songkran Festival celebrations at Silom road in Bangkok. 

Happy New — and Wet — Year in Thailand

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Temperatures broke into the 90s in Bangkok on Saturday at the kickoff of the three-day Songkran festival, encouraging Thais and visitors to really get into the spirit of the annual splashing ritual to greet the traditional New Year. The water splashing both symbolizes a spiritual cleansing but also a washing away of bad spirits. The festival is celebrated elsewhere in Southeast Asia, including in Cambodia and Myanmar.

This slideshow captures some of the frivolity at the start in Bangkok, where today’s temperatures are forecast to be as high as 93 degrees Fahrenheit or 35 degrees Celsius.