During this festive New
Year celebration, Thai people have a five-day public holiday from 28 December
2013 to 1 January 2014.
Like people elsewhere,
Thais celebrate the New Year festival each year with many joyous activities.
With the long holiday, many of them will have more time to travel and spend
with their families.
On this occasion, the
public has been invited to join Buddhist prayers at various temples across
Thailand in celebration of the New Year 2014. This annual event, which takes
place in the evening on 31 December until early in the morning on 1 January, is
meant to bring about prosperity and happiness for the coming year.
As a New Year gift, the
Ministry of Transport has allowed motorists to use certain expressways free of
charge from 27 December to 3 January to facilitate travel by the people.
Travelers have been urged to drive carefully for their safety. The call is also
meant to reduce road accidents and casualties, which are usually high during
this time of the year.
Thailand’s official New
Year’s Day has undergone several changes over the years. In the olden days,
Thais regarded the first day of the waning moon of the first lunar month as New
Year’s Day. It usually fell around the end of November or early December. Other
ethnic groups living in Southeast Asia are believed to have celebrated New
Year’s Day in either late November or early December as well. Later, the first
day of the waxing moon of the fifth lunar month, in mid-April, was observed as
the traditional Thai New Year’s Day, known as Songkran.
In 1889, King Chulalongkorn
(Rama V) officially set the Thai New Year’s Day as 1 April, but later it
changed back to 13 April. Thailand adopted the Western New Year date of 1
January in 1941, during the reign of King Ananda Mahidol (Rama VIII), the elder
brother of King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
The new year celebration is
an age-old tradition in Thailand. This is evident from the memorandum of Father
De Choisi of France, who served in Thailand as Assistant of the French envoy
from 1684-1686 during the reign of King Narai the Great. He cited how the
people decorated their residences on the occasion and how officials offered
their blessings to the King in the royal palace.
In observance of the New
Year’s Day today, apart from exchanging gifts and greeting cards, Thais still
maintain their style of traditional celebrations for the new year. During this
festive season, they usually visit their relatives, especially the elderly, to
show gratitude and respect.
The New Year festive season
is one of the best times for joyous activities in the midst of pleasant and
cool weather in Thailand, as well.
There are various events up
and down the country taking place in December 2013 and January 2014 to
celebrate this festival.
(thailand.prd.go.th)