In towns and cities all over Thailand people have been welcoming in the New Year and wishing each other ‘Sawatdee Pii Mai’ (Happy New Year). Officially, Thailand uses the Buddhist calendar which is 543 years ahead of the Gregorian calendar used in the West. This means that the year 2010 is actually 2553 in the Buddhist Era (B.E.). However, modernization and practicality mean that both calendars are used interchangeably in everyday life in Thailand.
New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day are public holidays in Thailand and provide a chance for families to get together. Many Thai people take the opportunity to visit the temple and make merit. It is a time to usher out the bad luck of the old year and wish for good luck and health in the forthcoming year. It’s also a time for parties and sanuk with major cities and resort areas hosting the New Year ‘Countdown’ (pronounced in Thai as ‘cow-dao’). In Bangkok, large crowds gather at Central World for the Countdown and firework displays. In Chiang Mai, thousands of fire lanterns (‘khom fai’) are released into the night sky as people make wishes for the New Year (pictured). In Chiang Mai this year the sky was particularly beautiful with a bright blue moon providing a stunning setting for the thousands of fire lanterns released throughout the evening and the fireworks that followed at midnight.
Thailand has the advantage of celebrating New Year on three different occasions. As well as the end of the year on December 31, there is also the Chinese New Year which is usually celebrated in February or March depending on the lunar calendar. Although the Chinese New Year isn’t an official holiday, a significant number of the Thai population can claim some Chinese heritage and the event is celebrated with gusto in some places, particularly Bangkok’s Chinatown area. However, the most important of the three New Year celebrations comes in April when the traditional Thai New Year, known as Songkran, is celebrated nationwide and is the major holiday of the year in Thailand.
photos © thaizer.com
