Upcoming Thai Festivals and Holidays

• 7. October 2006 Ok Phansa & Thot Kathin
  
  The End of Buddhist Lent Festival - This day is the end of the Buddhist Lent that lasts three month every year. Buddhists will make merit and offer food and other necessary goods to the monks. Time for the robe offering ceremonies ("thot kathin"). These ceremonies are performed during one month.
  
  Many activities originated on this day and have been passed on to the present generation such as the wax castle offering and illuminated boat procession to worship the Naga king.


• 7. October 2005 Naga Festival
  
  Bang Fai Phaya Naga is said to be a natural phenomenon. Fireballs can be seen rising up from the Maekhong River on the night at the end of the Buddhist Lent. Many people come to Nongkhai every year, hotels are booked out a long time in advance, and traffic that evening is like Bangkok at rush hour. There is also a friendship boat race between Thailand and Laos during this time.


• 23. October Chulalongkorn Memorial Day
  King Chulalongkorn or Rama V. is memorated for the modernisation of Thailand and thanks to his politics Thailand did not become a colony.



• 5. November 2006 Full moon night of the 12th lunar months Loy Kratong
  Not an official holiday, but a festival you should not miss when in Thailand. People float little containers with a candle, joss sticks and a coin to thank the river goddess and get rid of their past years sins.
  Kratongs were originally made from natural matrials, using banana trunks and leaves. In modern times people often replaces it with artificial floats from styrofaom. The government launched an initiative to preserve nature and encurages people to go back to the natural material to avoid polution.