YANGON, Myanmar ? After four days of unrestrained merrymaking, Myanmar ushered in the traditional New Year Sunday with hundreds of thousands of devout Buddhists across the country thronging pagodas to pray for a better future.

The mid-April New Year is celebrated in Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. To achieve merit and attain happiness in future rebirths, people donated food to monks in monasteries and invited the monks to recite prayers.

Many observed the old customs, paying respect to their elders and visiting homes for the aged to wash the hair and cut nails of the residents. Others released captive fish, birds and other animals as part of the merit-making.

As in recent years, however, the traditionally gentle religious event also was marked by wild parties, water-throwing and commercialism.

Despite severe penalties from Myanmar’s military government for unruly behavior, including up to five years in jail, thousands took to the streets to flout warnings in the four-day run-up to the New Year.

In Thailand, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said next year the government would have to clamp down on the celebrations. Many of the 481 persons who died during the first nine days of the 10-day holiday period in Thailand were drunken motorcyclists. Another 14,339 Thais were reported injured.