Thailand — Events
Naga Fireball Festival
One of the world’s most awesome phenomena is this natural event which coincides with the end of the Buddhist Rains Retreat. Hundreds, often thousands of balls of fire rise out of the water to a few hundred meters before disappearing. It is not yet known how exactly this occurs and though scientists may dispute, the locals believe it is the work of Naga, a serpent living in the Mekong River. There is an annual festival to celebrate this intriguing phenomenon.
Chinese New Year
Bangkok boasts one of the world’s largest Chinatowns and the best way to experience its cultural legacy is take part in its annual celebration. Each new lunar year, usually starting in February, the Chinese celebrate its arrival as tens of thousands tightly pack into Chinatown shoulder to shoulder. Seas of red clad people, worn to bring luck in the new year, drift with the current of the crowd between attractions.
Songkran Festival
The traditional rites of Songkran involve dousing everyone around you in water as a symbol of cleansing and purification at the start of the Thai New Year. Songkran is celebrated nation-wide around Thailand with great gusto, and equally enthusiastically in the capital city, Bangkok. The fun-filled festival is held for about three days, centerd on wats and temples where images of Buddha are bathed and the elderly in the community are symbolically washed by the youngsters. After the ceremonials, most people take to the baking hot streets for a merry, wet free-for-all.
Chiang Mai Art and Culture Festival
To celebrate the birthday of Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, this Chiang Mai festival features live outdoor Thai music and dancing, stage performances, Lanna art exhibitions and entertaining puppet shows (for the kids!) There’s also a lot of really good food at the festival.
Chiang Mai Songkran
Songkran is the Thai New Year, celebrated with exuberance and ceremony in Chiang Mai this is possibly the city’s biggest party event of the year! Songkran in Chiang Mai is one of the biggest parties of the year. Chiang Mai’s moat becomes a playground with people splashing and dunking unsuspecting friends, all in good humor.
Yasothon Rocket Festival
The skies around the town of Yasothon light up on this night with fireworks and rockets, tempting the clouds to spill their precious rain over the rice fields. Originating in pre-Buddhist times, it is a fertility rite held to celebrate and to encourage the coming of the rainy season, and parade ornaments and floats often sport phallic symbols and imagery. Although the humble origins lie in superstition, the festival is today a competition to see who has the biggest rocket. For more information phone the Yasothon Municipality on (0)45 711 397 or the Thailand Tourist Office on (0)2 694 1222.
Royal Ploughing Ceremony
A Thai traditional ceremony that is popular with tourists and attended by the King is the annual Ploughing Ceremony, which draws many of the country’s farmers to Bangkok to usher in the start of the new rice-growing season. The ceremony is held in the heart of the city and dates back more than 2,500 years. The chief event is a procession in which a red and gold sacred plow is drawn by flower-bedecked bulls, followed by drummers in green costumes, and others blowing conch shells or carrying baskets filled with rice-seed.
Thailand International Swan Boat Races
Racing the graceful oriental Swan Boats has become an international sport with more than 20 teams, including England, Australia and the United States, participating in the annual world championships held in November in Bangkok, on the river near the ancient capital of Siam, Ayutthaya. The elegant swan boats are long, narrow round-bottomed boats with upturned bows intricately carved that resemble swan heads, while the stern represents a flowing tail.
Silom Soi 4 Halloween
There’s nothing Thais love more than a good festival, and what better way to celebrate Halloween than with a street party in Bangkok’s trendy pedestrianized bar strip, Silom Soi 4. Many of the bars, clubs and restaurants along this strip combine themed decorations with promotions, resulting in a great night out!
Loy Krathong
Similar to Valentines Day in the west, Loy Kratong is celebrated in Chiang Mai on the full moon night nearest November. Decorated banana leaf boats, beautifully lit with candles, float along the waterways. Hot air balloons made from colorful bags are also sent off into the night sky. Very romantic...
