Anybody who was in Takhli Village during Water Festival will remember it as a uniquely Thai holiday with good humored dousing of everybody in sight with pails of water and a whitewash so in short time everybody was had splotchy white chalky stuff all over. Nobody escaped. That was then, 1970 in my case.
Water Festival is still a big deal and here's one video from April 2015.
Looks like it's evolved a bit - no more of the white wash treatment - just water pails and water guns and super soakers some with high capacatiy backpacks. Lots of other vids in the list at the right sidebar. The watermark on this particular vid is explained in the comments. This was shot in Chaing Mai April 2015.
Still a fun time but there is a dark side and every year lots of deaths during Water Festival. In 2014 248 died in the five days of Songkran -combination of water thrown on motorcycles, alcohol, dense traffic and the revelry in general. Probably not a safe time to visit but if you do visit stay off the roads. Korat area was cited for particularly high death and injury rate. Not quite the same as I recall it but the traditon lives on.
Dick Williams Takhli Base Weather 69-70 Kansas City MO now