How Southeast Asian American communities celebrate TLC New Year
Water fights may be suitable for a tropical climate, but adjustments must be made for cooler spring weather stateside
The first day of the festival celebrations includes cleansing and purification, which often involves washing Buddha statues.
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Words by Anjana Pawa
Across Southeast Asia, Thai, Lao and Cambodian (TLC) New Year begins Monday, right as the temperatures begin to reach uncomfortable highs, and the water balloon fights in the streets are received with a sigh of relief. In Minnesota, where the Thai Cultural Council has been throwing what it calls the largest Thai New Year festival outside of Thailand for five years in a row, mid-April temperatures could still put snow on the ground. And so the festival celebrations for the Thai diaspora move to late May when the weather warms up. This flexibility is weaved within so many diasporic communities across the United States, but can be felt right now as Thais, Laotians, Cambodians, and other Southeast Asian diasporic communities mark their new year in cities across the United States by shifting dates and adapting dishes, but still holding onto what it means at its core.
The holiday—known as Songkran in Thailand, Pi Mai in Laos, and Chaul Chnam Thmey in Cambodia—marks the solar new year and falls in April in accordance with the Buddhist calendar. In Southeast Asia, it is one of the most important celebrations of the year, signifying a time to visit temples, pay respect to elders, and ring in the new year. All of the traditions are rooted in Theravada Buddhism and the holiday is usually celebrated over the course of three days.
The first day of the festival involves cleansing and purification. Some may deep clean their homes and visit their local temples to wash Buddha statues. The second day involves rest, meditation, and spending time with loved ones. The final day of celebration, which falls on April 15 in the Gregorian calendar, is when people will visit local temples and make offerings to monks, followed by a celebration, which many times, includes a friendly water fight. The water marks prosperity, especially as the new year brings a new harvest season.
In Los Angeles, the answer to the question, “What does this holiday look like for us?” does indeed have water balloon fights and a designated time for people to make merit to monks, but this year, it also involves several woks and a world-record attempt. The Songkran Festival in Thai Town will be happening on April 26 along Hollywood Boulevard. The organizer of the festival, Oak Soonthornwan, told a local news station in LA that this year, they want to bring something “new and contemporary” to the festival, which is in its 17th year. There will be more than 40 food vendors, stage performances, a Miss Thai USA pageant, and a Muay Thai sparring stage. On top of that, 30 restaurants will be working 30 woks simultaneously to try to fulfill 1,200 orders of pad thai within one hour to break a Guinness World Record. Not only will an official adjudicator from Guinness be there, but one of the restaurants serving the possible record-beating dish, Thipsamai, will be flying in the chef from Bangkok, where, on an average day, the wait time for their famous pad thai runs three to four hours.
A little further south in Long Beach, California, the Cambodia Town Parade has been running since 2005 to mark TLC New Year. Long Beach is home to the largest population of Cambodians outside of Southeast Asia. A corridor of Anaheim Street is officially designated Cambodia Town and each April, it fills up with food, music, and dance to mark the new year. This year’s parade, which coincided with Easter weekend, drew a crowd of hundreds and celebrated the theme Through Culture: Celebrating Unity Through Diversity, which lands differently in this political moment.
In Oakland, California, the annual Khmer New Year festival at Peralta Hacienda Historical Park originally started as an exhibit. “Rhythm of the Refugee: A Cambodian Journey of Healing” first launched in 2011 and featured collected photographs and oral histories from Cambodians who survived the Khmer Rouge and rebuilt their lives in the East Bay. It’s now grown into a festival that draws more than 1,500 people to the town each April, with dance troupes performing classical Khmer dance, vendors selling traditional food, and live music performed by Cambodian Americans.
Every corner of the United States has its pockets of Southeast Asians who have built a home and remained resilient for decades. Near Lafayette, Louisiana is Lanexang Village, a Laotian neighborhood built by refugees who arrived in the wake of the Vietnam War and planted themselves in the South. The streets are named after cities in Laos, and every April, the village throws the largest Lao New Year festival in the United States. The event first began as a small block party in the mid-1980s and has grown into a three-day event that concludes with Buddhist ceremonies at Wat Thammarattanaram temple.
During this year’s parade at the Louisiana event on April 4, a drunk driver drove into the crowd and 19 people attending the festival were taken to nearby hospitals. The driver of the car, a 57-year-old local man, was arrested and charged with driving while impaired. The evening's events were canceled. However, on the morning of April 5, the organizers opened the temple and allowed people to pray. For a community that survived displacement and has rebuilt in places away from home, the act of gathering at the temple is not just a marking of time, but a celebration of resistance.
The celebrations across the United States do not end in April. Across the country, Southeast Asian communities will continue to mark the new year well into May as the weather warms up, from the streets of St. Louis Park, Minnesota, to temple grounds in small towns that most Americans have never heard of. The dates may shift due to the seasons, the dishes may adapt based on ingredient availability, and the crowds may look different depending on what city you’re in, but the heart of the celebration remains the same: gathering, honoring, and persisting.
Published on April 13, 2026
Words by Anjana Pawa
Anjana Pawa is a Brooklyn-based culture reporter who regularly covers music, entertainment and beauty. You can find her on Twitter at @apawawrites.