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We’ll start with Songkran because that’s the start
of the Thai new year. It’s held on April 13. Having already blown most
of the budget on fireworks for the western new year on January 1 and the
Chinese New Year festivities, this time they use water as a means of
‘purification’, saying goodbye to the country’s hot season and welcoming
the monsoonal rains. It involves a lot of water. In the past it was a
gentle festival held at temples washing Buddha images.
It’s meant to be like this…
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Fireworks, colour, smoke, noise, costumes, absence of occupational
health and safety. That could describe any of the many, many festivals
held around Thailand each year. Different regions, different festivals.
Some reflect an ancient culture and a rich history, other make
absolutely no sense but we enjoy them anyway. We’ll go through some of
the main ones and a few you’ll NEVER see anywhere else in the world.
But it’s actually like this!
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Somehow it’s morphed into a huge water fight, in some places, running
over many days up to week (in Chiang Mai and parts of Pattaya).
Ladeling water gently onto Buddha statues has been replaced by all-out
water fights, loud music, foam and a party that has no rules.
If
you’re outside during Songkran, especially in the main tourist zones,
you WILL get splashed, probably drenched. The more the authorities try
and play down the fun in Songkran the more tourists arrive each year
determined to party in an event that’s somewhere between a video-game
and the last half of ‘Titanic’.
And that’s just ONE festival!
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The Vegetarian Festival, principally held in Phuket
with it’s Chinese heritage, is an assault on all your senses. Parades
are held around the island by various community groups with participants
wearing white and followed up by either one or many mah-song. These
mah-song have been ‘possessed’ by a spirit and display tourettes-like
ticks, grunts and choreography that suggests their claims may indeed be
true. If it’s all an act, it’s a very convincing one because, apart from
all the cavorting down the street, they also have their cheeks and
other parts of their body pierced – not by an earring or something tame
like that – we’re talking spears, swords, petrol pumps, guns. It’s
insane! These days there’s an ambulance following behind and probably
more mah-song succumb to blood loss than is ever reported.
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Phi ta khon (or Ghost Festival) is held in the Dan
Sai district of north-eastern Thailand (near the Lao border) each year
and usually follows a parade of people dressed up in rags with ghost
masks.
Phi Ta Khon is the name given to a group of celebrations
held over three days in the province of Loei. The most striking is the
first day, the Ghost Festival itself, when the town residents invite the
protection of the river spirit Phra U-Pakut, and then parade wearing the ghosts masks made of husks and coconut leaves.
But they also carry with them large phallic axes which are meant to reflect… oh, Google it.
In Esan and around the Laos border areas there are many rocket
festivals each year around May to June. Probably the biggest is the Yasothon Bun Bang Fai Rocket Festival.
Imagine groups building their own rocket with the winner able to fire
their rocket to the highest altitude. Like Songkran, the idea is to
welcome in the forthcoming wet season (by piercing the sky to encourage
rain).
The rockets used to be made out of bamboo but are more
likely to be constructed out of PVC pipes these days and powered by
‘black powder’ which is regulated by certain rules (we doubt this
claim!!). So there’s gun powder, loud music, alcohol and men in
competition to fire home-made rockets high into the Esan sky – what
could possible go wrong?! Some of the rockets reach heights of several
kilometres and can travel a lot further down range.
Read more about the rocket festivals HERE.
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Chinese New Year is big in China and it’s also huge in
Thailand. Partly because there are many ethnic Thai-Chinese born in
Thailand but also because there are so many Chinese visiting the Kingdom
these days. The Chinese New Year festivities stretch from shopping
centre sales to regional street parades to ceremonies for families and
businesses.
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For a Buddhist country, Christmas is ironically
enthusiastically celebrated. It involves presents, eating, celebrations,
coloured lights and people spending money so it was always going to fly
in Thailand. Thais remain completely bemused by Santa Claus, ‘baby
Jesus’ and Christmas carols but, commercially, they’ve certainly
embraced it now.
I have never seen better decorations or a
celebration of Christmas than I have in Bangkok. My best Christmas
moment was when I found a statue of Santa Claus nailed to a cross – a
slight cultural faux pas where they’d confused Easter and Christmas and
come up with a perfectly ‘Thai’ Christmas decoration.
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Source - The Thaiger
