As Thais and people around the world gather to celebrate the Songkran Water Festival, Twitter joins in the festive occasion by launching the first-ever #Songkran emoji. People can Tweet with the #Songkran emoji using both English and Thai hashtags. The #Songkran emoji is available from now until April 20, 2018.
The #Songkran emoji on Twitter depicts an elephant splashing water – paying tribute to Thailand’s national animal, and also highlighting the much-anticipated annual water fights between locals and tourists as a symbolic representation of purification and the washing away of one’s sins and bad luck. The special emoji will appear whenever the following hashtags are included in Tweets: #Songkran, #ThaiNewYear, #สงกรานต์, and #ปีใหม่ไทย.
The conversations have already begun on Twitter, as people around the world Tweet their thoughts and well-wishes for the occasion of transformation and change: 
Commenting on the launch, Philip Chua, APAC Public Policy Manager, Twitter Asia Pacific, said “Songkran is an important occasion for Thailand, and also coincides with the New Year for many of our communities in Southeast Asia and around the world. This year, Twitter is proud to introduce a special emoji for the occasion, encourage more people to share in the celebration and to lend a colorful touch to what’s happening in Asia!”
